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Choosing new suspension setup...

CSVT#49 said:
I did some searching and people thought there were design issues with the Ksport. Hopefully Rara will chime in on that one.



Starjammer... so your saying the ends of the struts where to large to fit into the spindle assembly? Did you pry the opening up a little bit where the bolt goes through.
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Correct, I took my air hammer into it and that didnt help.

bensenvill said:
ya rara was complaining [for both ksport and d2] that there was no guide slot [or whatever his term was] where the strut attaches to the hub assembly... it would definitely be nice to have there.


starjammir, what your saying is a bit concerning. the strut should never slide in and out without a fair amount of effort... especially if there is no guide to lock it to the hub assembly. They seem to have very narrow tolerances on easy to assemble and near impossible to hammer on. I spray painted my rear hub assemblies and even a few coats of rustolium made it impossible to insert the [stock] strut... I had to take some sand paper and remove the paint from that area. If its too easy, you might want to add a bit of spray paint... better solution would to be to have that guide welded onto the strut [was thinking of doing that myself].

the other issue rara had with both the setups was the connector for the sway bar arms, in the fact that they way they lock down... or potential lack there of.
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Ya it was a little bit wide on the strut side. Maybe just my car is weird or my ksports were just a little off. I dont know. I do know they have been on the car for 3k now with no issues :)
 
Pudmunkie said:
Mike,

You should probably pick up the right tools for the job, like a prybar, or a chisel... not a screwdriver. Otherwise this is exactly what you do, just to spread the knuckle out a bit to get the strut to slide in. You will still need to do a fair amount of pounding on the bottom to get it to seat.

Ben is correct about Rara's complaint, but with how tight mine fit in the knuckle... Im not too worried.

Also you may consider doing what I did. I installed the rear struts with the adjuster rods inside the strut. otherwise you wont be able to adjust them once they are in the car. I just need to buy a new one to adjust the fronts.
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me and mike both have proper tools. my chisel was too wide. my "big scrwdriver" is about a foot and a half long and is perfect for that type of job. i didnt mean to sound like a hack when i posted that up lol
 
I'll be the first to admit I do not have a lot of welding experience so I'm not sure if this is pratical since it is a pressurized cylinder. But wouldn't the best solution for these issues be to weld the correct mounts on the struts?

The tab for the knuckle and sway bar end link seem like they would be really easy to do.

Thoughts/comments?
 
Rara said:
Well, my spax struts fit tightly into the knuckle as well, right up until the powdercoat got scratched up, then they would slip right in and out. A lot of it depended on how much the knuckle was "torqued" relative to the axis of the strut.
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You know, doing the rears with my ksports they went into the knuckle just fine.. No problems... and when doing the front i had problems getting them into the knuckle... so i used an air hammer and spread it apart and sprayed some silicone in there and it slid in there like using ky Jelly ;)


And i set the struts too Medium so it will absorb a bump or 2 but it still is a firmer ride.. and Your rite i am worryed about the sway bar issue BUT it didnt stop me from getting my kit.. Ill just Check them, and Tighten them every oil change or so. and there shoudlnt be a problem.
 
CSVT#49 said:
I'll be the first to admit I do not have a lot of welding experience so I'm not sure if this is pratical since it is a pressurized cylinder. But wouldn't the best solution for these issues be to weld the correct mounts on the struts?

The tab for the knuckle and sway bar end link seem like they would be really easy to do.

Thoughts/comments?
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i would not let these 2 issues bother you when it comes too this awesome set up! they handle great. there not that much more then the other set up's and that if you check the sway bars every oil change which is what im doing you shouldnt have any problems.
 
Blacksvtownsyou said:
You know, doing the rears with my ksports they went into the knuckle just fine.. No problems... and when doing the front i had problems getting them into the knuckle... so i used an air hammer and spread it apart and sprayed some silicone in there and it slid in there like using ky Jelly ;)


And i set the struts too Medium so it will absorb a bump or 2 but it still is a firmer ride.. and Your rite i am worryed about the sway bar issue BUT it didnt stop me from getting my kit.. Ill just Check them, and Tighten them every oil change or so. and there shoudlnt be a problem.
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I honestly must have gotten the same spring rate as bensenvill. Ive got my :censored::censored::censored::censored: at full soft and its still like riding around on a solid strut:laugh:
 
Well I'm working with Ksport to find out why there isn't a tab for the through bolt on the knuckle. Also they report no issues with the clamp tab for the end links. But rather there could be issues if the end links are not setup properly. If the clamp is set to low it will cause problems.

Anyway I will let you all know what I find out.
 
Well here is a IM conversation I had with their tech support:

me: hello I have a question
them: sure
me: I sent in an email from my work email account and I haven't received an answer, it was from XXXXXX@cat.com
me: about the Ford Contour kit
them: what was it
them: about the tab?
me: yup
me: did you guys figure something out or no
them: we are still trying to see if we can do it
me: sounds good... what was engineerings initial thought.. just curious
them: i dont know
them: ill reply when i get an answer.
me: ok fair enough
me: I guess I'm just wondering if I should buy the kit now and try to machine my own tab and attach it
me: or if there is a remote chance that they would do something about it I might wait
me: I can't imagine that is a high volume kit
them: no its not, but we sell a fair amount
me: off the books of course.. but is it really worth the companies time to spend the money to do an engineering change for a kit that you only sell a fair amount of per year?
them: it depends what the change is
them: and why it was omitted initially
me: or even a better question, have you ever received questions about this tab before in the past?
them: no
me: yea didn't think so based on the phone conversation I had
me: if you had to take a stab at it, how long do you think before you hear back from engineering?
them: maybe end of the week
me: thanks for the update. I guess if I don't hear anything by the end of the week I'll give you guys a call again on Monday to see whats new
them: ok
me: appreciate your time

So I'll let you guys know what happens by Monday night.
 
Yup, I talked with them about it at least once, perhaps twice before . . . I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for an answer.
 
Rara said:
Yup, I talked with them about it at least once, perhaps twice before . . . I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for an answer.
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Yes I know you did, which is exactly why I asked the question. Who knows maybe this sales/tech support guy hasn't worked their long enough to have known about it. Either way I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on this one. If I don't hear anything by the end of the week I'll just call and see what they have to say. That's all I can do. I sent them pictures of the Ksport kit that someone posted up a while ago, as well as the Monroe replacment strut and an installed strut with the retaining bolt circled. So it is obvious as to what I am talking about as well as the purpose of the bolt.
 
Argh... worked an 11 hour day so I didn't get a chance to call them after work. Hopefully I'll get a chance to call them tomorrow.
 
Alright well apparently "all" or most of the companies engineering staff is out of the country for a race :rolleyes:. I was told they would get back to me next week. I guess we shall see.
 
Finally an answer

Finally an answer

Well gentlemen the news is out. KSport will be developing a new strut base. The new base will be steel instead of the current aluminum and will include a mounting tab that mimics the OEM tab. This currently still in the development stages in their R&D shop, but I was told that it would be released in about 2 months time.
 
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