Aluminum Control Arm Answer?

[Neunelfer]

Thanks all... I have an early (75) 915. It came with a "like new" clutch cable. Looks like all I will need is the rod. Oh... got the Jr. BFH as well ;-)

[Neunelfer]

You can partially compensate by removing said dust cover as well as some material from the lower shock mount boss on the control arm. This isn't as drastic as it sounds. The actual threads (14mm) are a steel insert in the control arm and the necessary amount to remove is merely aluminum, in effect a spacer and not threaded either. Remove the excess material on a milling machine or carefully, by hand. This was Kevin Buckler's (TRG) recommendation when I researched for a piece in Excellence.

Sherwood,

Does your car actually have the aluminum control arms on it? The reason I'm asking is this: I'm dropping the car on it's suspension this weekend and the shocks don't fit... at all.

The difference isn't side to side where you would shave off part of the control arm but rather front to back. The mount on the control arm seems to be too far back to use the Koni's. The body of the shock actually hits the rear edge of the oval shock recess. If the shock were to fall naturally into place it would want to be mounted roughly 1" forward of the current mount on the aluminum control arms.

They installed but once I went to drop the car the angle of the control arm pushed the shock into the rear edge of the recess on the body.

HELP! Do I need to go Bilstein?

[GreenT]

I did this same conversion a few months ago onto a 1970 model, with Bilsteins. Not sure if this is the exactly the same 'rubbing' problem you are describing - on mine the changed geometry causes the scraping you see as the car is being lowered. I thought I was screwed, then realized once the car is all the way down with full weight, it's ok. Close, but ok. This picture is with the car on the ground, and taken right after a 50 mile drive today. You can see there are no fresh scrapes from regular use, in fact a little surface rust has formed on the scraped spot since it was last on a lift.

[Neunelfer]

While they look similar, it seems like mine scrape is higher on the shock body. The problem I'm having is the car won't go down on the suspension. I set the ride heigth w/o the shocks. Now with the shock on it rides about 2" higher and it doesn't move. Period. The shock and the body are hitting like a "y". The branch off the y being the body shock hole. If the mount on the control arm were moved about 1" forward (bottom of the y moves toward the right in this example) you can see how it would clear.

My control arms seem to be milled to the metal insert and again, that isn't the area I need to remove...

Puzzled. I'd like to hear from anyone who has Koni's with aluminum control arms. If it doesn't work then I need to switch over to a full Bilstein system.

Anyone interested in a Koni front suspension lowered 18mm?

[GreenT]

I did the conversion on the front as well, so it was SC parts with Bilsteins all around. Nothing had to be done out of the ordinary to get the back done, other than welding in the later style gusseted sway bar mounts. I did the ride height and corner weighting and alignment all after the new parts were installed. I drove immediately after installation (very slowly) for the alignment work. It was definitely wacky on the way in. The way back it was like 'dang, I shoulda done this ten years ago, this is the way the car is SUPPOSED to be'.
There was an earlier thread about corner weighting where I posted my before/after pictures that you might want to reference at

http://d240157.u39.zeonhost.com/foru...=corner+weight

Another reason I wanted to get rid of the Koni's up front in my original struts was because the Koni's kept failing. The specified model was a combo oil/gas unit, and the seal between the two would fail. I'd call Koni and they'd say 'We've sold a million of these and they never do that, send them back and we'll replace them'. I did - twice - the third time it happened, I said heck with this. BTW - the replacements were never new units in boxes, they were scratched up returns or seconds, which didn't help to endear me to the Koni brand. The SC pieces and factory sway bars and Bilsteins transformed the car, not to mention the bigger SC brakes. Keep plugging away, the end result is well worth the effort.

[911pcars]

Eric,
Yes, I did the conversion on my '69T in '97. I used Koni Sport shocks (yellow) and removed the dust shield for needed clearance. Worked for me. Did you remove the dust shield or try installing the top shock stem finger tight, before installing the bottom bolt? In addition, I think the Koni Sports (gas) are slightly larger in diameter than the regular Koni red hydraulic shocks (not positive though).

Not sure what's happening, but if everything else is okay maybe you could gently persuade the shock tower metal with a BFH just enough to provide the needed clearance. Yours is the first case I've heard with this clearance issue.

Sherwood

[Neunelfer]

Thanks Sherwood...

Yup, the dust shield was off (hence you can see the scratches directly on the shock body in the picture). I'm wondering if the gas shocks might actually have a thinner body than the hydrolics...? My shock bodies measure 55mm in diameter.

I did not tighten the top bolt finger tight first, it was more or less a combination of the two. It was a solo act so I had to use the bolt to help hold the shock into position.

I suppose I can try simply attaching the top this last time and then letting the car down. Then I could reach under and see if I can even move the shock back enough to meet the mount.

Anybody else out there with standard Red Koni's?