Koni strut cartridge install

Here's the front suspension unloaded after jacking up the car and placing it on jackstands. Use a 12mm openend wrench to remove the brake line bracket from the back side of the strut. Then use a 17mm ratchet and 17mm open end wrench to remove the strut mount bolts from the strut/spindle.

Here is the strut unbolted from the spindle. NOTE that if you are going to lower the car a lot, you should get some Ingalls Engineering Camber Bolts to adjust the camber back to spec when reassembling. These camber bolts are also available from NAPA.

Break the top strut shaft nut (19mm) loose, BUT DO NOT REMOVE IT, unbolt the top three strut mount bolts (14mm), and pull the assembly from the car.

Install the strut spring compressors on the outside of the spring (NOTE that the compressors should be opposite each other, which is possible with the stock springs. The strut shown has Eibachs on it, and it wasn't possible to get them opposite each other.), compress the spring as much as possible, then remove the top strut shaft nut. You should be able to remove the nut easily, as the shaft is keyed into the top mount. When reinstalling, though, you may need to use a Vicegrips to hold the shaft when initially tightening the nut with an open-end wrench until the shaft is pulled into the keyway in the top plate.

Once you have the strut out of the car, and the spring and top plate removed, turn the strut over, and centerpunch the bottom of the strut housing.

Drill a 1/8" hole in the bottom, and then tape it over to prevent the strut oil from leaking out. You can shake the strut over a drainpan before taping it off to remove as much oil as possible before cutting the strut open, but make sure to tape this hole off before cutting.

You want to cut the strut off as close as possible to the weld shown circled here. You can use a hacksaw, jigsaw, or pipe cutter.

I used a chaincutter I bought for building exhausts and IC pipes, it makes very clean cuts. The chain has cutter wheels on it, you just line it up, latch the handle to the chain at the right diameter, then rotate the cutter to cut through the housing.

Here is the strut housing partially cut through. Note how close the cut is to the weld.

Once the cut is through, you can pull out the stock strut center and throw it away. Be careful not to tip the top of the housing down, there will be a lot of oil in it (even if you drained it, there will still be a bit left).

Here is the stock housing after removing the strut shaft.

Here is the top of the housing - note that internal lip, the Koni cartridge has some locating bumps that fit against that lip.

Once you have drained all the oil out, enlarge the bottom hole. The Koni instructions say to drill it to 14mm, but I just used a 1/2" bit, and after it had gone all the way through, I rotated the drill a bit to enlarge the hole slightly.

Slide the rubber sleeve included with the Konis to the top of the cartridge, and drop it into the stock housing.

If the bolt, star washer, and thick washer will fit on the bolt included with the cartridges, and start screwing into the cartridge, go ahead and start bolting it down. The cartridge was too far up in the housing on this install, so I just put the bolt in the housing, tightened it down a few turns to pull the cartridge in, then removed the bolt, and reinstalled it with the star and thick washers.

Here is the housing after pulling the cartridge in enough to add the washers.

Here is the housing after adding the washers to the bolt.

Torque the cartridge in place (I believe it was 63 ft-lbs). Fit the rubber sleeve down over the top of the housing to keep dirt out of it, and slide the plastic wiper ring onto the strut shaft.

Install the stock bumpstop and rubber shaft dust cover. If you are lowering the car a lot, the stock bumpstop may need to be trimmed. Here's the front bumpstop trimmed down - I cut about an inch off of it.