Koni Yellow/Pro Kit assembly question

[saxmanbrad]

Hey folks,

I'm in the process of overhauling my shocks/struts and bought everything to assemble a new set of shocks, struts and springs. This includes Koni Yellows (8741 1490L,R) and the Eibach ProKit. I also have brand new top hats and strut bearings (Motorcraft DV6Z-18198 and CV6Z-18183-A) I began assembling the fronts (not re-using springs that are on the car) and noticed that spring really did not have to be compressed much at all for the top hat bolt to be tightened all the way until it bottomed out on the shock shaft. I released the tension on the spring after tightening the top bolt and found that there really isn't much load on the spring at all. I can compress the spring by hand and it will stop touching the strut bearing. If you knock the assembled strut on the floor, there is a clunk because there isn't much load on the spring.

Am I missing something? Does the sag of the vehicle weight make up for this, or if I install it as is will it be a clunky disaster? I guess what I'm asking is if in the Yellow/ProKit mate up, is there very little load on the spring when in the assembled strut?

If you guys have any input, please chime in. I'd like to figure it out before it goes into the car.

Cheers!

[Loophole35]

Nope you aren't "missing" anything the front springs do not have much if any pre-load in the uncompressed strut. My H&R sports were the same in my yellows.

BTW until the springs settle in the front you will get a few pops in the front when turning at low speeds. This usually goes away in a few days

[MSMS3]

Indeed, the gap will be gone when the vehicle is returned to ride height and the spring and strut compressed. This temporary gap may be exaggerated with shorter springs, and certainly will seem so with the assembled strut, spring, bearing and hat assembled and on the workbench. In that state there is no preload whatsoever. This is normal.

Much of that gap goes away once you compress enough to get the bottom of the strut into the bottom of the knuckle and locked down with the cross bolt. You will then be rotating the spring and strut bearing to make sure it is aligned properly, strut bearing tab to the outside, spring base rotated against the stop, and then jacking the bottom of the knuckle up in order to put the sway bar end link back in place. The gap will disappear as you do this. You will probably have to use that jack to press the strut bottom into the knuckle to its resting position, anyway.

With the vehicle back on the ground, there will be no gap.