Converting JIC coilovers to KONI or Bilstien?

[Colorado S14]

How possible is it to convert a JIC FLT-A1 coilover to use Koni 86xx or Bilstien PSS9 or something like that. I have the JICs now but they are getting a bit long in the tooth. I have been reading the threads discussing the Koni Yellows and 86 series with ground control sleeves and wondered how hard it would be to gut my current setup and use it to make a Koni coilover.

[Fries]

I guarantee that it would cost less to just buy the Koni, rather than buying the konis and reconstructing a coilover system.

[Colorado S14]

Buy the koni what? I want the height adjustability, camber perch, springs, etc. and buying the Koni shocks and using as much of my old stuff as possible will definitely be cheaper that buying that all new.

[Geno750]

You can trade the F1's in to JIC for the TAR's too, the trade in price is pretty good.

[s13dan]

I have NEVER been able to get ahold of anyone @ JIC america. E-mails or by phone...I dont think it exists, its a big empty wharehouse. with one phone.

[Geno750]

I have NEVER been able to get ahold of anyone @ JIC america. E-mails or by phone...I dont think it exists, its a big empty wharehouse. with one phone.

Called them yesterday and I didn't even get a switchboard, phone was answered immediately :-/

[drift freaq]

I guarantee that it would cost less to just buy the Koni, rather than buying the konis and reconstructing a coilover system.

Please don't comment about this if you don't know jack.

To the OP, you should be able to put 86xx series in the JIC's the two things you need to check for is inner diameter size of the tube that the JIC damper is coming out of.
The other thing is to make provisions for the gland nut that holds the 86xx series in. You should be able to do this with the JIC's though.
Ace in Hole has done the same setup with D2 Housings. I am making custom housings for my Koni's because I got the all the hardware for pretty much nothing. Don't pay attention to some of the people who are posting in this thread and are clueless.

I am assuming you got a set of blown FL1A's for cheap. Go for it man and good luck.

[undesiredshoe]

Ive been thinking about doing the same thing. It would save me money from having to buy the sleeves, perches, springs, etc. Im only looking to do a koni yellow setup but the hard part is koni doesnt have dimensions for koni yellows!

[coolcatracing]

Why not just rebuild the JICs? I know from doing it that its not very expensive and I can't see being able to buy new stuff being cheaper than just rebuild those. Plus they can revalve them in the process for whatever springs you may want to use. I too always get through to the people at JIC. I talk to them about once a month for custom TAR setups.

[yudalicious]

Ive been thinking about doing the same thing. It would save me money from having to buy the sleeves, perches, springs, etc. Im only looking to do a koni yellow setup but the hard part is koni doesnt have dimensions for koni yellows!

Why not just use the OE strut housings? Move the spindle bracket up for more travel. I think you guys are way overestimating the cost of sleeves/perches/springs. I got a whole set of used GCs w/ springs on ebay from an RSX for $70 shipped and I see used GCs for sale regularly across different forums, just make sure the ID on the sleeves is usable.

[Maxstyle]

i work at JIC. PM me and shoot me some pictures. I can give you your options. I'm always there week days. I'll be more than happy to help you. I dont' know what number you are calling, but we always pick up the phone. Hope to hear from you...

Adrian.

[Def]

Please don't comment about this if you don't know jack.

To the OP, you should be able to put 86xx series in the JIC's the two things you need to check for is inner diameter size of the tube that the JIC damper is coming out of.
The other thing is to make provisions for the gland nut that holds the 86xx series in. You should be able to do this with the JIC's though.
Ace in Hole has done the same setup with D2 Housings. I am making custom housings for my Koni's because I got the all the hardware for pretty much nothing. Don't pay attention to some of the people who are posting in this thread and are clueless.

I am assuming you got a set of blown FL1A's for cheap. Go for it man and good luck.

AceInHole never went through with the 8611 into his D2 thing. The housing diameter is too small anyway, so it will never work.

As for the JICs, just sell them and buy veilside180sx's 861x housings. Should be about the same cost, and then springs/perches etc. aren't that much money on top of it, and you can actually get some springs that don't suck(almost all the springs that come on "coilovers" have a horrible final rate tolerance).

Way less hassle, and probably cheaper even if the JIC housings are big enough as you'll have to pay a machine shop to cut threads in the top of them to hold the Koni gland nut(which aren't cheap by themselves).

[Maxstyle]

Depending on the year of the coilover, JIC's normally have a thicker spring diameter giving you a smaller ID (62mm). This gives the End user longer life span. As for the dampening characteristics, Please not the vehicles running JIC's do much better as shown by M-1s Evo rocking JIC's out of the box H setup in last months Sport Compact Mag. As stated before, i will be happy to discuss a discount plan to get you into the TAR or FAS. We can even do a custom setup for you. If you opt not to go with a JIC product remember, always buy based off of benifits and not just features. GL with your project.

[Def]

Why would a thicker spring give better spring life? Spring cross sectional area is a function of the modulus of the material, the spring rate and the number of active coils. A small change in the diameter might influence the needed diameter for a rate just slightly, but as far as I remember from Machine Design it's not a factor. The real issue with "JDM" springs on coilovers is that their manufacturing tolerance is typically huge, so you might have up to 4-5% rate variance from the advertised rate. So instead of a 504 lb/in (9 kg/mm) spring in your front coilovers, you might have a 530 lb/in on one side and a 480 lb/in spring on the other. Tell me that won't affect handling...

Eibach and Hypercoil spec a 2% rate variance, and the Hypercoils typically fall within 1% or less of their advertised rate.



And as far as fast time attack car meaning the dampers are great - I wouldn't really go so far as to say that. It's a pretty much "run what ya brung" class, so different vehicles can have wildly varying levels of power/tire/aero etc. It's pretty expensive to build one of those cars, so people/shops are usually more than happy to run a suspension if they get a deep discount and run a few stickers.

[Colorado S14]

I know this is perhaps a lame question but is there really any litmus test to tell if a damper is blown. I can move them relatively easily by hand, but some tell me that a shock dyno is the only way to know...