KSport Coilovers: All About 'Em

[j.fro]

Have you got a picture of the shocks that you've got? The collars on mine are against the threads on the shock, but there does not seem to be any adjustment.

[insite]

Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour

Insite, I just bought the same set from the same people on eBay! What a small world.

I did not request the special spring rates, so what do I do now?

if you just ordered them, you can probably call TCS and have them change the rates. in my opinion, their standard split of 5.3/9.0 (300/500) is WAY too rear biased. you usually use your car on the street, right? i'd go 5.3/7.0 (300/400). it's not possible to go lower than 7.0 in back without having them re-valve the dampers. if you can't get them to change the rates before they arrive, you can buy a set of 7.0 springs from KSport for under a hundred bucks.

[insite]

Originally Posted by j.fro

Have you got a picture of the shocks that you've got? The collars on mine are against the threads on the shock, but there does not seem to be any adjustment.

they look kind of like the ones in this pic (i don't have mine yet). loosen the collars circled in red (the rears may only have the top collar) and twist the entire strut. there are directions here: http://www.ksportusa.com/edocs/Coilover%20Instructions.pdf

[insite]

looking at their instructions, it appears that SOME applications don't use this style lower mount and must use the spring perch for adjustment. i suppose the ones for the boxster could be this way......i was working under the assumption that they'd use an internally threaded lower mount. what do yours look like?

[RandallNeighbour]

I just got my Ksport Coilover Kontrols today. They look amazing. Incredibly well made with strong attention to detail in every way.

They don't have an orange painted lower bit like the ones pictured. They have a second set of springs below the ones pictured above. I'm guessing that's for ride height adjustment. I'll try to get a shot of them uploaded over the weekend here.

They came unsprung... which I expected.

So how should these be adjusted before they go on the car? Or, should I adjust the ride height and spring rate after they're on the car?

I am confident my mechanic knows how to install them. How to set them is probably not something he does a lot because he's an "OEM all the way" kind of technician. He'll most certainly tell me I'm an idiot for buying these and I'm on my own after I install them.

Of course, I could be all wrong. He might be excited for me and know exactly how to tweak them. I'd just like some advance knowledge so I can instruct him as to how they should be set up initially so I can drive away and not drive wonky.

Thoughts?

[insite]

Make sure the right springs go on the right shocks. Ride height will have to be adjusted in a couple of iterations until it's right. It will settle a bit, too, so you may have to raise it after a day or two. Get an alignment afterward. As for adjusting the damping, start full soft and increase the fronts by quarter turns until the front isn't bouncy any more, then do the same thing for the rears. Of course it's more complicated than this for the track, but this will be fine for the street.

Overdamped means you'll be skittish over bumps and the ride will be jarring. Underdamped means the car will porpoise and kind of skip along the road in a bouncy fashion.


BTW, randall, is the 106k in your sig 106k miles, or 106k dead presidents?

[RandallNeighbour]

The springs are already installed on the shocks so I think I'm safe there.

Originally Posted by insite

BTW, randall, is the 106k in your sig 106k miles, or 106k dead presidents?

It's miles, but I'm betting I have more dead presidents in my 97 boxster than any other 2.5 liter boxster owner in the United States.

Not that I'm bragging or anything. Sheesh. I should be ashamed of myself!

But I'm having a wonderful time fixing up this car and modding it and that's what hobbies are all about, eh?

[insite]

one more thing: how long did they take to show up after you ordered them?

[RandallNeighbour]

I got them about four days after I ordered them. However, after careful examination, I bought them from a different company than you. The company I ordered them from had them in stock and shipped from Austin, TX which is just a day away via UPS.

[Gary in BR]

KSports...Ksports...Ksports

Wow this has been a subject that has been with me for over a year.
I am way too bust right now, I am only getting to check in on the forum once or twice a week.

Learn from me kids dont try to open a 5th office...its killing me!



I am still trying to convince myself I can make these coil overs livable on my daily driver.

Maybe once you guy get yours on you can help me.

Originally Posted by insite

Overdamped means you'll be skittish over bumps and the ride will be jarring. Underdamped means the car will porpoise and kind of skip along the road in a bouncy fashion.

)

I have both of these problems the car is either too jarring or porpoises.

But, I do not have the 2nd "helper" spring on my car. Would this help???

I am also running the Ksport standard springs. Would getting a "softer" spring for the rear help.


The build quality and the ease of adjustment are top notch on this product.


Any help guys?


Gary

[insite]

Originally Posted by Gary in BR

I have both of these problems the car is either too jarring or porpoises.

But, I do not have the 2nd "helper" spring on my car. Would this help???

I am also running the Ksport standard springs. Would getting a "softer" spring for the rear help.

gary -

the standard spring rates are roughly 300/500. that's biased too much toward the rear. if you are comfortable with the front rate, you can reduce the rear to 400 lb / inch (7.0 kg / mm) and be fairly close to the PSS9 rates (4.7/6.6 or 260/370). that would be a lot more comfortable. if it's skipping over bumps when it's damped enough to eliminate the porpoising effect, then helper springs are a good idea. not sure if KSport has a kit for this, but i bet they do. FYI, 7kg springs from KSport for the rear of your car are only $100. you can get a pair of eibachs or hyperco for not much more. i don't have mine yet, so i can't take measurements, but other aftermarket helper springs will work here, too.

[RandallNeighbour]

Gary, I'm no help because I don't have them on my car yet and have no experience with coilovers... yet!

DerGeist is running them and loves them. He's the reason I bought mine, and just stumbled across Insite's thread the day I placed an order for them off eBay.

[RandallNeighbour]

Insite, I'm gonna need some help from you to get my Ksport Kontrol's installed right. My mechanic's never installed them before and it's gonna cost me a bunch of extra cash for him to learn how to do the basic adjustment as the clock ticks away at $100 an hour.

I just inspected them again this morning (in the box, at the office) and the rears have a 2 inch thin, light spring below the main spring that must be for the height adjustment.

However, the fronts do not have it on the shock, and it came loose in the box for me to add. Where does it go? Why would it not be on the shock the same way the rears have it on there?

The instructions sent are total crap. They're for another setup completely and only have about half the information I need.

The dials that go in the tops of each strut to do fine adjustments on the camber are not mentioned at all!

I'm thinking the company you bought them from may be more helpful than the eBay seller I bought mine from. I've put an email into tech support at Ksport headquarters in Phoenix but they're not open for business yet.

When you get yours in, do comment on what you got and how they're supposed to go on the car and the basic info I will need to do the install. For example, I'd love to know how many MM or inches I should set them up for at first.

Should I get mine installed first, I will try to explain what I finally figured out.

Hopefully, my email into Ksport headquarters will yield some better information.

[insite]

randall -

FYI, i was an ASE certified mechanic back in the day. i'm intimately familiar with this type of suspension package. how do you want the car set up? street, track, both? what kind of ride height do you want to run? i'll assume primarily street w/ my advice here.

let's start with the helper springs. on each strut from top to bottom, the order of parts should be: top mount, spring cup, big spring, spacer, little spring, spring perch, and locking collar. you will adjust ride height from the spring perch at the bottom.

prior to installation, do all of this:

for starting ride height, tighten the perches just until they hold the springs in place. then, give them three more full turns and lock the collars.

you will NOT be able to adjust the camber plates once the struts are in the car; the holes on top of our strut towers are too small. since you will probably run your car a little lower than stock, we will need to take OUT some camber up front. loosen the allen bolts on the camber plates and position the center pillow ball so it is one quarter of the way between outboard and inboard. to picture this, if it were installed, the pillow ball should be closer to the outside of the car than the inside.

in back, we will also want to remove camber. remove the allen bolts on each top mount and move the pillow ball to the outermost of the three positions.

set all four shocks to full soft. MAKE SURE you leave the adjusters in the rear struts when you install them; you will not be able to fit them in after the fact.

once they're installed, go for a short drive to let the ride height settle. figure out how much you want to raise the car. put her back on the lift and adjust each spring perch up by that amount. these are linear springs, so ride height has a 1:1 ratio to perch height. raising the perch 1" will raise ride height 1".

now, align the car. since the suspension will not travel as much, you will need a tad bit more static camber than stock. set the front to -1.2 and rear to -1.8 (if you can get it) or -2.0. set front toe to zero and rear toe to a HAIR of toe in.

now, we can play with damping. since we're on full soft, the car should be porpoising badly. drive around and pay attention to the rear. increase rear damping by 1/4 turn at a time, taking a drive between each adjustment. once the rear settles down, do the same up front. at this point, you should have a good street setup.

you can probably run slightly lower tire pressures now; this will make things a bit more comfy. with those spring rates, i recommend 33 front and 28 rear.

once i receive my parts, i can be of more help. if you want to wait, i can give a more detailed write-up once i install mine. it will probably be another two weeks before they're here & i can install them.

[insite]

on another note, randall, if you want an atlanta vacation, you can flee the hurricane and i can put them in for you on the cheap.

also, if you haven't replaced your rear wheel bearings, this is the time.

[RandallNeighbour]

Here's a crappy cell phone pic of the fronts:



And the entire set:



So why are the thinner lowering springs not already attached to the fronts? I can see no way to put them on to look like the backs so there must be a different configuration.

I'm already having my mechanic do the front wheel bearings. He says the backs sound fine and don't need replacing right now.

BTW, I bought Che's adjustable toe links for the front and back. I'm getting rebuilt lower control arms all the way around, rebuilt rear trailing arms, and new drop links. The rear end suspension will be completely rebuilt and most of the front will be new as well.

[insite]

Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour

So why are the thinner lowering springs not already attached to the fronts?

not sure. some people choose not to run the helpers. i will be running them.

Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour

I'm already having my mechanic do the front wheel bearings. He says the backs sound fine and don't need replacing right now.

you have over 100k on your odometer. do the rears. if you don't and one goes bad, you will essentially have to redo all of the work required to install the coilovers. since the knuckles will already be off the car, it's easy to disconnect the ebrake cables & replace the bearings. they're $30 each.

Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour

BTW, I bought Che's adjustable toe links for the front and back. I'm getting rebuilt lower control arms all the way around, rebuilt rear trailing arms, and new drop links. The rear end suspension will be completely rebuilt and most of the front will be new as well.

nice. there are no toe links up front (tie rods instead). do you mean the diagonals?

[insite]

randall -

one more thing: it's my understanding that the bolt threads on the Ksports are a different thread pitch than the OEM. you will need to buy the right nuts ahead of time.

[insite]

randall - are they threaded on both sides of this collar?

[Gary in BR]

This has been helpful, I am going to contact K sport about getting the helper springs and the different rear springs.

I think (hope) this will help.

Afterwards I'll update everyone.