So this weekend I started welding and I wasn't really intent on getting the inserts installed by Sunday's autocross, but I finished up the welding by mid day on Saturday and decided to go for it.
Here is the first tack weld:
The penetration looked pretty good on my test piece.
This is how I set up the real thing:
Now most guys aren't going to show you their welds unless they're pros, especially when they look like this... but I'm keeping it real:
This section wasn't the worst I could show you, but I got a little better by the second strut. They all looked prettier after they got ground down. All I was concerned about was getting good penetration yet not blowing it out.
Two struts primed. I considered painting them yellow. But I didn't feel like cleaning and degreasing the entire strut, so I just stayed with black and painted the bare steel.
Painted and assembled. I put a few dabs of red loc-tite on the threads. Will I ever get it apart again? I hope I never need to.
Stock strut on the passenger side.
On the driver's side:
The brake fluid filler was a real pain to remove. Actually, everything was, way back under the windshield overhang. I ended up purchasing some ratcheting wrenches (13mm removed the tower screws) to make things go faster. Even with the 10mm wrench, the right-hand nut on that fluid filler piece needed to be done completely using the open-end wrench.
Stock strut assembly out:
I had a few choices: one, I had to choose between the Koni-supplied bump stop on the right and the stock bump stop on the left. I stuck with stock.
Assembled tower:
Koni supplied a plain nut and a slightly thinner jam nut. Why not a nylon locknut? Seriously lame. At this point I felt like I was turning my car into a rattle trap. I went out and bought a 22mm tall socket (the chrome kind... not the black impact kind, because the outer diameter of the heavy duty ones won't fit within the strut tower's bearing plate cup.)
I needed this, because you know the tool you would need to tighten the nut and hold the 11mm hex at the top of the insert's pushrod at the same time? It doesn't exist.
The advice I got from a fellow autocrosser was to be sure the springs were compressed and out of the way, and just zip that bad boy on with an impact wrench. Well, that worked. I then added some dabs of loc-tite and followed that up with the jam nut. Hopefully that will hold without becoming some kind of rattle from hell.
Finally this is the kind of access I have to the adjustments at the tower tops:
I guess I won't be using those iconic Koni knobs for adjustment.
Does anyone have any tips on adjusting Koni's where overhead access is limited? What is the perfect tool for the job?