We swapped shocks to Koni reds on the 85.

The front adjusters were frozen..no amount of cleaning and work would free them. *sigh* Back onto the car in the state they were in.

Front of car, is obscenely high. Just..like you just pulled the motor..4-6 inches too high.

I will get new adjusters..yes, but, the front shocks dont seem to have miles of adjustment in them.

What could be wrong here?

 

did you measure the lower perch height to lower bolt?
from shock to shock? were they the same or very close?

 

any chance you flipped the lower perches upside down ???

 

..I was not the human in charge of that process. The wrong measurement was obtained it seems.

I guess, get new adjusters..and then start in the middle.

 

the front adjusters are odd looking and drop down over the ring on the shock....flip them upside down and they look more "normal" but now instead of being lower sit much higher...easy to do since it is a bit counter intuitive . Had that happen to several customers over all those years

 

I wanna be clear, that if the identities of my helpers became known, I'm _deeply_ in their debt for the help they provided, and hey..we measured the wrong thing. It's ok.

This wasn't a blame thread.

We may never know who they are...

 

Anybody have an exploded view or sketch showing the correct orientation of the bottom adjuster? I might be in this same boat! BTW - I have Bilsteins with stock springs.

 

sometimes they seem frozen, but if you really get a grip on the adjusters, they will move with the tool.

i dont think the adjusters upside down would make a huge difference. new shocks need a long time to settle too, so its not unusual for the ride to be jacked up until you put some hard miles on the shock

 

Nope, these were mechanically frozen. I physically cleaned them, and then put them in ultrasound for 30min at 200d. Couldn't drive the steel inner ring, with a chisel even.

 

Is 'two fists high' gonna settle down to 2 fingers?

 

Im not doubting you .. but chizel isnt a good testimonial. it does very little. I was ready to give up...... then, i got a great grip and got a 1/8 turn in a burst of superhuman strength. the lever on the tool is what can do this, and really , not much else. all the chizel did was chew up the cut outs.
what type of shock tool did you use?

 

well, that sounds high.... but, probably not. you have the increased gas pressure of a new shock, plus all that sticktion stuff that plagues the 928 when lifted. you might need to figure out a way to move them. i have the tool you can borrow, but it might be what you already have plus technique. i ran into the the same thing with Gregs 6 liter when i had it for a year . it was a bitch moving them, but they do move and the chizel is like peeing in the wind. it , for sure, will not move them.

 

I had this EXACT thing happen when I replaced my worn out Boge's with Koni Reds. Had frozen collars, ordered good used collars from 928 INTL. Even with the front spring seat at the bottom of the adjustment range the car still looked like the "Paris Dakar Rally Edition." I can only guess that the gas pressure in the Koni Reds adds to the "effective spring rate" of the suspension. Whatever the cause others have reported similar results. I'm not sure why it seems to affect some cars and not others, but in general it seems like there are less complaints from the S4 owners than the OB owners with respect to this issue.

There are a variety of possible solutions, but the most affordable and acceptable one to me was tracking down a used set (actually used but never installed set) of Weltmeister lowering springs. They are out of production, linear rate springs, about 2X more firm than stock, less firm than the upper range of Eibach progressives and I've been happy with the outcome. Typically someone on the forum has a set for sale or you can find them by posting a "parts wanted" thread.

If you go this route, search "Weltmeister." I wrote up some "lessons learned" because there are a few issues regarding back dating the rear spring seats due to the diameter of the Weltmeister springs, but overall it was the best solution. End result is a car that can now be lowered to an acceptable ride height.

Other guys have experimented with cutting one to two coils off the stock springs with mixed results. Keep in mind when you cut a spring, the spring rate increases, so the car does not lower as much as you cut. Still other guys have used Carl's 928MS coilover kits. That was going to be my backup plan if I could not find a set of Weltmeisters.

 

I cannot accept that the shocks are lifting the car more than a mm or two. I cant.

They simply do not have the static pressure to do more than that...you can compress and hold it by -hand-.

 

It does.