1988 3.2 USA Mondial Cab ground clearance, Front-4" Rear-5"??

Update,

After installing new front A-arm poly bushings and bottom shock bushings the front ride height clearance has increased from the 4" to almost 4-3/4". I attribute the increase to the new bushings and the bottom shock bushings which were noticeable oval in shape.

For the the A-arm bushing replacement I followed Birdman"s instructions. The job was not all that hard, the hardest of course getting off the A-arms.

https://www.birdman308.com/service/bushings/bushings.htm

To service the A-arms the shocks had to be removed, again not all that difficult. But the removal of the springs and the shock bushing replacements was quite a task. The springs were removed as we wanted to check the condition of the original shocks. The shock bushings replaced because of the wear.

The spring removal and replacement was scary. I had to make a special tool to removed them. Your off the shelf "harbor freight" spring compressor was not going to do it. These springs are so long when relaxed (almost 19") the entire spring has to be compressed to about 10-1/2" to remove from the shock. Installed they are about 12" in length.

The shock bushings had to be pressed out and the other metal sleeve had to be cut out. The new bushings pressed in ok, but a sizable hydraulic press is needed.

The 37 year old shocks showed no sign of leakage and were fine. A call to Koni yielded the adjustment procedure, as does the factory manual. Mine had a little over 2-1/2 turns from soft to hard. The as found settings were almost 1/4 turn off full soft, which we reset.

Once all back together again the ride is firm but solid. By the way, new sway bar link bushings were also replaced.

Here are some photos of the process. Took me about 3 weeks working 6+ hours a day. Having a four post lift is a life saver.

Thanks
Jeff
ownferraribeforedie


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"Can you further describe how the shocks are adjusted? This is the first I have heard of that. I think the cab's were factory set with the softer setting, while the hardtops had a harder setting. How much of a turn did you choose? It is encouraging to know these shock can last a long time with minimal wear, that is a well built shock!"

My car is an 88 3.2 cab. When I got the shocks off the front and the springs removed (what a job) they had these markings.
82-2259 122027 8706 plus the Koni name etc and Koni sticker and a sticker saying cabrio.

So I called Koni and was advised that the first number is the Koni number, second the Ferrari part number and the 3rd is the date made. In this case 6 month of 1987. He also described the adjustment procedure as follows and I am summarizing from memory.

Clamp the bottom eye of the shock in a vice with shock vertical.
Take all the rubber bumper pieces off the shaft.
push the shaft all the way in and rotate it until the shaft lowers even further as you can feel it drop into an internal slot.
At this point the shaft is engaged internally with the adjustment mechanism.
Rotate the shaft CCW until it stops. Do not force it. You can tell when it stops.
At this point shock is set at full soft.
Then rotate CW until it stops again, and this is full hard. It should be about 2-1/2 to 2-3/4 turns for my model shock I have and it was.
The as found setting on my shocks was 1/4 turn CW from full soft. And I reset set them to this in assembly.

Now the
mondial8qv_workshop_281-83
manual has the same adjusting procedure but it says there should be 6 turns soft to hard. Of course this manual does not really cover the 3.2 that I have and I would assume the shocks are not the same

The Koni rep said these shocks are specifically made for the Ferrari Mondial 3.2 cab. I would assume the to be the case for most of the shocks supplied by Koni during that time period.

Another observation. On both of my shocks I pulled the rod up at full soft and again at full hard. I am certain I felt a difference in pull force. At full hard there seemed to be a lot of resistance. I might be full of it but that was my observation.

My shocks showed zero signs of any leakage and they both reacted the same at 67,000 miles. As stiff as these cars are sprung and with many with low mileage, and the Mondial is really probably a car that is not tracked much, one could deuce the shocks might last a while. At least that's my take.

Thanks
Jeff ownferraribefordie