Beaky less bouncy - adjustable? Not!

[John Sims]

Since spending a small fortune on Beaky's front suspension, and the 968 CS anti roll bars front and back, I have been aware of a slight tendancy to steer on the throttle. Not as in going round corners but when giving it some boost on the straight. Whilst one tends to get super critical after spending money on upgrades, I was aware of the car pulling to the right slightly under boost and then settling to the left when comming off the gas.

In an attempt to cure this anoying trait I slapped on a pair of Koni adjustables this evening. I've not had a chance to try out the revised set up but (at last the reason for this posting) I am a little surprised how unadjustable the suposedly adjustable rear shocks are, or aren't. Note: these are the standard adjustable jobbies not the coil over ones.

If I understand the instructions I was given, to adjust the shocks, you need to remove them from the car, poke a wire in the end some how and twiddle the end in some way. Having done this you the have to remount the shocks. Granted this will be far easier now then when trying to fight with bolts that haven't been turned for fifteen years but it still doesn't strike me as something you are likely to want to swap for a wet, dry or track day set up.

Any thoughts, and can someone point me in a direction of how you adjust them.

 

[Diver944]

Here's a paste from David Sims website www.944turbo.org.uk

The best way to adjust the rear units is to remove them from the car.

You will need to remove the units bump rubber (needle nose pliers or by forcing a nail or the like through the small holes on the upper dust cover) and fully compress the shock.

This will engage an internal adjustment mechanism. Once this mechanism is engaged, rotating the upper portion of the shock clockwise will increase/stiffen rebound forces, rotating it counter clockwise will decrease rebound forces.

It is possible to adjust the shock while it is still on the car by removing the bump rubber and the lower mounting bolt, but for your first time you probably ought to take it off the car so you can better feel and understand the adjustment

Needless to say I bet the rears never get adusted much. Whaddya expect for £70 shocks []

 

[TTM]

Also don't forget to run new rear shocks on the soft setting for a good 500 miles before setting them on "hard", in order to "bed them in".
Otherwise they will wear out quicker, and as you said, they are not pretty good from the start !

 

[Guest]

What a chore !

My adj. Koni have a small tongue of metal on the top, onto which fits a plastic knob.
Rotate left or right. Remove. Extract arm from engine compartment.

OK, a different car; your's sounds too much like hard work.

 

[Guest]

ORIGINAL: John Bellringer

What a chore !

My adj. Koni have a small tongue of metal on the top, onto which fits a plastic knob.
Rotate left or right. Remove. Extract arm from engine compartment.

OK, a different car; your's sounds too much like hard work.

Your forgetting our engines are in the correct place so your rears will be similar to the 944 fronts. [8D][]

 

[924nutter]

have a look here http://www.koni.com/_cars/frame.html

 

[richthomas]

My konis arrived this tuesday, I went for M474 option fronts and M030 rears in the end, and I was a liitle dissapointed to find that the fronts adjust in the same way as the rears, ie you have to compress the piston and turn it rather than the plastic knob for the top. It means to adjust them you need to have them stripped from the car and the spirngs off to change the settings!!. The thing is, it's hard enough to compress the piston all the way down, let alone hold it there to adjust it as they are gas charged!! I'm just going to leave them in the standard setting, they are stiffer than standard ones anyway, and should give a marked improvement over the tired 116k mile ones on there at the mo!

 

[Melv]

"Beaky less bouncy - adjustable? Not!"

Goodness John!!

Sounds like a Daily Telegraph cryptic crossword clue!! []

Mel

 

[TTM]

ORIGINAL: richthomas

My konis arrived this tuesday, I went for M474 option fronts and M030 rears in the end, and I was a liitle dissapointed to find that the fronts adjust in the same way as the rears, ie you have to compress the piston and turn it rather than the plastic knob for the top. It means to adjust them you need to have them stripped from the car and the spirngs off to change the settings!!. The thing is, it's hard enough to compress the piston all the way down, let alone hold it there to adjust it as they are gas charged!! I'm just going to leave them in the standard setting, they are stiffer than standard ones anyway, and should give a marked improvement over the tired 116k mile ones on there at the mo!

I left my front M474 Konis as they were when I mounted them. They were stiff enough and still are after 20,000 miles.
I guess yours will have been set up as stiff as mine were ... ?

I see your S2 is a '90 model like mine (same colour, too).
I highly recommend fitting 968 CS springs (blue dots) with the front Konis, they are an excellent combination.

 

[richthomas]

Thats also what I ordered last week, the ones that came have three blue dots, the stiffest, so I hope they don't rattle the car to bits![]

I did a lot of research on suspension before ordering all the parts, and found this article,
http://www.club944.net/nuke/html/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=61 which helped a lot.

Is that your car Thom?? My car (and most other S2's I've seen) seems to sit higher at the front which is why I went for the springs, to hope fully match the rear. I'm going to fit them, see how it sits, and possibly adjust the rear spring plates if needed.

My car is a 90 model, and is crystal silver, supposedly a rare colour only avaliable for that year. Is it the same as yours??

I got M030 rears only because the M474 ones are more than twice as expensive each at the moment, and because they are supposed to be a little stiffer than the M474 ones so should compliment the stiffer front springs well.

 

[TTM]

Yes Rich, the car in this article is mine and it's also Crystal Silver (LY7T). []
(LY7T was also available for the '91 model year)

The fronts I mounted are Porsche-coded M474 Konis, but the rear ones are 'only' 8040-1035 Sport (Koni part number) so I can't tell if the rears correspond to M474 or M030. However Koni will supply those 8040-1035 Sport as replacements for both M474 and M030, apparently.
I think you did the right choice by buying 'real' Porsche-coded rear M030 as they seem to be a bit stiffer (when set on stiff) than mine, in my experience.
It should be fine with the stiffness, it's definitely not as rattly as a M030 set up and the car should not lose (too many) screws on the drive, although it's a bit 'impressive' the first time.

For the next step I suggest you to fit a CarGraphic or a KLA strut brace (see the link in my signature) : it 'tightens the front of the car altogether' pretty well.

I think Fen has been using 968 CS springs on his cab for a long time. If I had found about it earlier I would not have gone through the hassle of wondering which springs could fit the S2 struts, as at the time I was unsure wether S2 springs had the same diameter as 968 springs : I ordered the CS springs without even being sure they'd fit. [8D]

 

[Diver944]

Drat [] I didn't realise the M474's did not have the top adjustable knob like the M030's

Shame you had to find out this way Rich, but you're right, if you are happy with the handling once installed there are very few times when you will be adjusting them anyway. Since fitting my new standard shocks a few months ago the rear of my S2 has definitely settled a little bit and I don't like it.

Shorter springs here we come [8|] Are you saying that the 968 CS springs fit straight on to the S2 shock (standard and M474)

 

[John Sims]

Thanks for your comments guys - appart from the £60 one, I paid £115 each from Porscheshop for the Konis. [] They do have a 951 ref number on them though. For that money you would think they would have had nice stickers and instructions as well; and fit themselves; and have a fitter on hand to adjust them when ever I fancied.

After a good old road test I can report that, whilst Beaky does seem more stable, he still seems to pull to the right under boost and go to the left off boost. That was a waste of £230 quid then - does anyone want a pair of, apparently, perfectly good second hand Sachs units [8|].

I have little doubt that they are going to have to be tightened up, well when you have adjustable shocks it would be rude not to adjust them, but I'll run them in a bit first.

Whilst under the car I also noticed that the fuel lines are corroded around the junctions. [:'(] Deep joy, that is so not going to be cheap.

 

[John Sims]

ORIGINAL: Melv

"Beaky less bouncy - adjustable? Not!"

Goodness John!!

Sounds like a Daily Telegraph cryptic crossword clue!! []

Mel

Perhaps I missed my vocation Mel. []

 

[Fen]

ORIGINAL: TTM
I think Fen has been using 968 CS springs on his cab for a long time. If I had found about it earlier I would not have gone through the hassle of wondering which springs could fit the S2 struts, as at the time I was unsure wether S2 springs had the same diameter as 968 springs : I ordered the CS springs without even being sure they'd fit. [8D]

The cab is standard at the front but with M030 Konis on the back (I had them lying around under the back of the Turbo []

It was my LHD S2 coupe that had CS springs, but they do fit straight on the S2 strut.

 

[924nutter]

Porscheshop do anealed, plastic coated aluminium fuel tubing, I beleive it comes on a roll and you feed it over the rear torsion bar housing obviating the need to drop the rear axle. Not cheap but if you sell them bouncy castle supports you should take most of the sting out as when they showed this new line to me in December 2002, it was £180 for sufficient pipe for both.
Or you can do what I did on my old 924. Get some 10mm brass compression joints and some 10mm copper tubing. Cut out the rusty section and join in new stuff.

 

[Mark_Bennett]

I also noticed that the fuel lines are corroded around the junctions. Deep joy, that is so not going to be cheap.

I had this done on my old S a few years ago.
VERY expensive...

Since then, a letter in 911 & Porsche World (about a year ago?) explained how to do it considerably cheaper (i.e. without dropping the gearbox[:'(])