Hello Ferrari chatters. I'm currently rebuilding my koni shocks for my 83 QV. And hopeing someone can help solve this mistery for me. After reading a couple of great threads here on Ferrari chat I decided to take on the project. I have acquired what I thought was all the seals required (according to the posts) but.. after chatting to a guy that rebuilds shocks, he beleived that their is a rubber washer inside the shock that deteriorates and totaly disappears over time. This would explane why their was so much broken up rubber, blocking all the oil ports and floating around in the oil, and yet the seals in the top of the shock seemed to be in ok condition (not leaking) and only a small amount of wear. This has me beleiving that their most likely was another rubber washer in there. None of the posts I've found here have mensioned this rubber washer. I have a couple of photos of where I beleive the washer may have been. Basically its between the piston and the top seal holder. This would act as a cushion for when the shock is fully extended and the piston travels up the cylinder and hits on the underside of the seal holder, this would possibly explain why the rubber washer disintergrates/ disappears over time, their is a lot of force between these two parts hitting together caused from the tension on the outer shock spring. If anyone could shed some light on this mistery washer would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/my-first-ferrari.323318/page-6 Look here I think I remember seeing the Koni in pieces.
Waaayyy back in 2004 I started a thread on rebuilding the shocks on my GT4. I subsequent years a FerrariChat server crash lost all the accompanying photos and my own computer crash lost most of the original photos but the original thread text is still available. https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/inside-of-a-308-koni.19907/#post-67308840 My shocks (1977) had a stack of rubber washers acting as the rod seal and as you found they deteriorated into crumbs which migrated through the shock and clogged those tiny orifices. Koni changed the seal design to a traditional oil seal at some point which no doubt solved the problem, I don't know when that change was made. IIRC, I modified my upper nut to accept a standard oil seal (not necessarily of later Koni dimensions). My shock adventure was influenced by a tour of the Koni facility in Hebron KY (a Cincinnati suburb) after a co-worker/friend left the company (circa 1998) for a job at the Koni facility. Watching them being rebuild shocks left me with the impression that it wasn't rocket science at least as for as just restoring to original specs.
Thanks for the feed back guys. Yes I had seen these posts and they were VERY handy when rebuilding my shocks, but I still believe that there was a rubber washer inside the shock cylinder, acting as a cushion? Probably between the piston and seal holder as indicated in my pics. I can't find a cross section of the shock anywhere. This washer isn't shown in both threads, but they were likely missing from being "smashed up". I guess at the end of the day it's not going to effect the shock performance but possibly hear the 2 metal parts hit when the shocks fully extended. I'll be getting my rebuilt shocks put on the dyno hopefully next week. Just would have been nice to know for sure about the rubber washer in case I have to pull them apart again. Any more info out there would be much appreciated. Dean
