Lucky's Series 3

[Chud]

I had a similar experience with KYB when doing the suspension on my Lancia Delta. Utter cocks.

[TOOL]

Nice work Nik. No finished pictures of it back on its wheels with new springs though? that's not fair!

Your experience with KYB sounds appalling, if that was me I'd never wanna buy any of their kit again. As for the s2 vs s3 IIRC the s3 has bigger wheels bearings and so the stub axel is a different shape. But otherwise I was lead to believe they are the same.

Yeah, Steve is right. S2 and S3 use a shorter shock. S1 is a bit longer apparently.

Those KONIs that came up had a piece on the bottom that you cut off if you want the short version for your application.

[Lucky]

OK, thanks for the info, guys. Lokks like KYB have cocked it up and simply don't want to admit it then Confident our shameful O-ring bodge will work, but that's hardly the point, as I said. And there's no pics of it on its wheels cos it isn't, yet. Still waiting on brake pads to replace the one there's only half of, so ATM it's still up on the ramp. Hopefully the pads will arrive eary rather than late, I can get out in the rain and take some pics

[Lucky]

Sorry to have been a bit slack on the updates, it all got finished lastminutedotcom and I've been spammed with work since then (plus sick babies, sick wife, the usual run of life getting in the way of playing cars ). Good news is that the O-ring bodgification works fine, no play in there at all, so that's groovy. The car now steers.

...yep, it actually steers Full stop. Not like turn the steering wheel twenty degrees before the wheels wake up and start to turn, not sawing away on the freeplay just to go in a straight line, it actually steers Like, awesome. The suspension is stiffer, but not hard as such, it's still a comfortable ride, but now you can really feel the weight transfer in corners and the suspension controlling it. It's become a really pointy car, especially in constant-radius corners like big roundabouts, just throw it in, and it grips and holds the line, none of the vagueness and wobbling course corrections of before. Short version: pleased wi' that

The brakes are wicked, too. I trawled through loads of pads trying to find some, and in the end thought why go for cheapy stuff when I could spend a little extra and get proper stopping power. So I went for some road-track carbonceramic Hawk pads in the end. Good job I didn't have these on the old suspension, it'd have been ploughing furrows with the front airdam every time I braked. Even the stiffer RB springs dive on the brakes quite a bit, and it just stops. Epic.

So, with it now steering and stopping like a proper sporstcar, It was time to upgrade my interface with the whole procedure. I've never liked the stock steering wheel much, it's too blocky and dull and grey rubber and well... eighties. Marc very kindly said he had an S2 wheel I could have off him, and it's such a nicer looking wheel I couldn't wait to get it on. Getting the old one off was the hardest part, fortunately I remembered to leave the centre nut on loosely so the wheel didn't fly off when I whacked it with a mallet and I therefore have escaped having "ADZAM" embossed irrevocably on my forehead



So, some before and after shots...
Before;


After:


Brake pads before Yikes!


And after;

These Hawk pads are great, I was slightly worried being the road/track compound they'd take ages to warm up and squeal like a fat city boy in hillbilly country, but they work perfectly from cold and only squeak very slightly just as the car comes to a stop.

Suspension before;


and after;

Hmmm. Is that an inch drop? It looks almost identical to me, but never mind. It's worth it just for the effect on the handling. I find myself wondering if uprating the swaybars would really finish it off or if it's end up getting too stiff and provoking the back end out too much. Hmmm, again. There's always something lol

Just a little hint of sexy red peeking out, like a glimpse of suspender Oooh

[ian65]

it might settle a bit lower after a few weeks Nik. I actually quite like the 3 spoke s3 steering wheel but prefer the leather rim of the s2.... shame we can't have a mixture of both.
Those old pads looked grim.

[Marc S]

Looks good buddy

Yeah, you should find the springs will settle a bit over a few weeks and some miles, and it might drop a bit - I found the same when I fitted my spax -30mm springs, it seemed to sit at the same height, I figured it was a case of new springs instead of tired old saggy ones???

[BO0557]

Liking the cran the little details you ave done nik.. Especially the wantanabes and the carbon shaped rotors behind the repeaters

Personally lop another coil off the coils and it will look the business

[KiwiDave]

Nik

Did those KYB's come with a new gland nut? (fig b as suggested by the fitting instruction leaflet). Andy at AMT is still trying to figure why my gland nut won't play with my nice red koni's. Am trying to get the part no's from the strut and old shock from him.
Maybe I should just go KYB instead... grrrrrr

[Lucky]

Yes, they did, Dave. It was the spacer between the gland nut and the shock top that was missing/not needed (delete as to whether you believe mine or the KYB version)

...never heard it called a "gland" nut, did you make that up or is it a real thing? Or even just Japanese for "grand". "EEEeee, it were a reet grand nut that, sithee". No, that's not right, that'd be Yorkshire wouldn't it Ignore me, nothing to see here

[KiwiDave]

I could have just said 'that huge nut thingery that goes on top of the strut'. My first post was on Exile so I thought I'd better find a far more technical term. I searched the koni website and found the term 'gland nut' appearing a few times so I googled that and voila, that's what the thingery is called.
Now, I got the Koni's from Hayden (sans nuts as it turns out) but had no idea that these things were important until Andy called me.

I'm waiting to hear from Koni if they can supply a pair.... otherwise I'll do the KYB thing... Now I could ask KYB if they supply said nuts seperately as I'm sure they would probably accommodate the koni's as well but after your surprising intercourse, I'm not sure that is an entirely good idea.

And just out of interest, what term do you use for the 'huge nut thingery'?? Anyways, many thankyous for the enlightenment.