Koni Strut and KYB Gas-A-Just Rear Combo?

[shelbycsx4me]

I'm looking for opinions on using Koni Adjustable Struts with KYB Gas-A-Just on
the rear in an 87 CSX. I realize the KYB's are not adjustable.
Plans are to replace all the bushings too and do autocross track time
with the occasional 1320 feet trips .

Is it worth the trouble or just bite the bullet and go 100% Koni ?
Steve

[4 l-bodies]

Steve I had gas-a-just on my old Shadow for 10+ years. They are a good performance shock. Not sure if they still are lifetime warranty but when I parked my Shadow for a year the pistons rusted. When I started driving the car again the rust took out the seals on both shocks. Brought them back with my receipt and they replaced them no questions asked. Now the new ones are on my new shadow working like a champ. They are much more firm then the KYB GR2's
Todd

[rbryant]

Most of the time the rear is just along for the ride so the front is far more important than the rear.

The rear konis are adjustable but you have to take them off to adjust them so that kind of defeats the purpose anyway.

Unless you want to get much more advanced and expensive with coilovers that setup should work well for you.

-Rich

[tryingbe]

Having stiffer front than rear will make your car understeers more.

[rbryant]

Having stiffer front than rear will make your car understeers more.

Stiffer is not exactly the same as properly damped. The setup won't allow for running the Konis at max firm but it can still work.

With stock springs the Konis can be adjusted to match the rears and still handle pretty well.

The cheaper rears will still hold it back some but not as much as running cheaper fronts. A stiffer rear beam or swaybar can also help that.

I didn't mean to imply that the setup would be as good as konis all around.

-Rich

[Murphy]

I've had the same set of gas-a-justs on 2 different spirits over the span of 4 years. I'm currently running them with eibach springs and gabriels struts. I also have the 1-1/8 front sway bar, 1" rear swaybar, strut tower bar, half bald 205's up front and dry rotted 195's out back. They seems to work good and there seems to be a good balance between the front and rear traction.

[shelbycsx4me]

Would I have to be concerned with having the Fronts to soft for normal street driving
and having the rear bounce out around a corner?

[rbryant]

Would I have to be concerned with having the Fronts to soft for normal street driving
and having the rear bounce out around a corner?

What do you mean by "too soft for street driving?"

The Konis can be adjusted to be very similar to what a front KYB would be when adjusted to their soft side. If you do that then they would be the same firmness as the KYB but they are a better strut so they would still work better.

Considering that the rears are much easier to adapt than the fronts it would probably make more sense to get rear Konis/Bilsteins, etc from say a early 80s Buick Regal/Grand National.

From the specs the 78-87 Grand National PN: 8040 1093 should work if you just change out the bushings...

The regal shock uses a T-bar bottom mount so that bar would have to be removed and replaced with a bushing. It is also about 3/4" shorter but other than that it is about the same. Almost everyone is lowered 1" from the base model Daytona anyway so it is actually a good thing that they are slightly shorter.... The Regal shock is probably valved more firmly than the Daytona Given that it is RWD and heavier so it might have to be adjusted to the soft side.

Daytona Rear:

Shock Compressed Length : 13.375"
Shock Extended Length : 21.500"
Shock Travel Length : 8.125"

78-87 Regal Rear:

Shock Compressed Length : 12.625"
Shock Extended Length : 20.75"
Shock Travel Length : 8.125"

They are only $200-250 a pair ($201 direct from Koni). There are also QA1s, and several other shocks available for the Regal...

-Rich

[shelbycsx4me]

It looks like the Buick Koni rears are "remove and adjust" too so there's no advantage there.

There's probably no good way to make a safe and reliable 'quick release' to remove the
rear koni's.... that's just a dream i guess.
If I'm going to make my 87 CSX primarily a track car, I'd probably have the rear Koni's setup
before it leaves my shop anyway. It was also give me another excuse to check around underneath.

Thanks for the feedback Rich.

[rbryant]

It looks like the Buick Koni rears are "remove and adjust" too so there's no advantage there.

There's probably no good way to make a safe and reliable 'quick release' to remove the
rear koni's.... that's just a dream i guess.
If I'm going to make my 87 CSX primarily a track car, I'd probably have the rear Koni's setup
before it leaves my shop anyway. It was also give me another excuse to check around underneath.

Thanks for the feedback Rich.

The advantage of the Buick setup is that they are still made and they are cheap...

If you want an adjustment without removing them get the QA1s they have a dial adjuster on the shock body. Those are about $160 each.

-Rich

[Vigo]

Thread TLDR..

There's probably no good way to make a safe and reliable 'quick release' to remove the
rear koni's.... that's just a dream i guess.

Cordless impact and wobble 15 socket. But it would still suck.




Ive have both the gas-a-just and the koni rears and imo the gas-a-just are a FAR better value. They work great, and while the koni's also 'work great' (not for the money) they are a pita to adjust, and you can only adjust rebound, and i may be wrong but based on the bounce test im pretty sure the gas-a-just are actually STIFFER on compression damping than the konis are.

I wouldnt hesitate to run gas-a-just. If you're looking for something stiffer and/or adjustable, i and others have discovered a few other options. They're all explained in the KYB AGX thread that's stickied at the top of this forum section.

[Shadowv4l]

I run Koni's in the front and gas adjusts in the rear with sway bars and lowering springs, if anything my car oversteers. The back end throws the weight around nicely, Ive been sideways at speed many times and was able to control it without an issue. This is also with a fat 3.0L auto in the nose...... you'll be fine.