I own a 79 rx7 and during the fall I am planning to redo my suspension, due to the age of the car. Alright so as the title says, which shock company is the best. I want to hear all of the pros and cons of each company and their different products. I want to put the best overall shock in my car so price isn't an issue, I will be using my car as a weekend warrior and possibly a daily driver if the time comes. Please tell me of other shock companies as well. I want no rock left unturned. Thank you.

 

I love tokico. I've had my "mr2 race" tokico illuminas up front and tokico blues in my car the past couple years with no problems. I've been thinking of switching to Koni adjustables in the rear instead of switching the blues out for tokico illuminas though cause the konis adjust at the bottom under the car where as the tokico illumina will adjust at the top. Having to take the speaker covers out in the rear to get to..Not a big deal, just saves some time.

I think its Kentetsu thats running bilstein shocks in the rear of his autox car. Don't remember if they're adjustable or not. Bilstein is well known and a excellent shock also. Not sure where to get them though.

Talk to Sam at re-speed and he'll be able to set you up with a nice suspension combo if you tell him what your looking for.

 

With a '79, your options are limited; many manufacturers no longer make drop-in replacements for any -7 prior to '81.

 

+1 on what DD said. The SAs just aren't getting the support like the FBs. Its the
front shocks that will be the problem. No one really makes performance inserts for
the front anymore.

I have seen that you can make a spacer and fit an FB shock cartridge in the front
tubes but I don't remember the link where I saw it. Otherwise you could swap
in FB front spindles I think.

 

I used fb inserts (Illuminas) in my SA. They are about 1/2 inch shorter so I just cut a 1/2 in spacer and dropped it in the housing and it works fine. Im really happy with the street illuminas I got from Re speed. I have them on the rear as well. I cut a small (read hard to see) hole in my rear interior pieces and put some removable covers over the holes so that I can adjust them easily. I love em. It lets me soften the car up so my wife will ride in it and stiffen it up when I need to.

 

How about some more info on that "spacer," sir? 1/2" length of what material, of what diameter, and if cut from tubing, of what wall thickness?

 

Yeah I know that Sa's aren't getting any attention, so I'm switching to a later model strut tube. Forgot to mention that.
:P

 

Also this is more about the shocks and the companies that make them, and not what will fit and what won't fit.

 

Ditto! My illuminas were worth every penny! Love them!

 

Unless you are involved in serious competition (and sometimes even then), I would recommend the Illumina shocks. The ability to change from hard to soft settings is invaluable for a car that sees regular roads.

If you want/need something better than that, look at Bilstein. www.farnorthracing.com has lots of info on shocks, and what is good and what isn't. They don't look favorably on the Tokico Illuminas due to inconsistent changes related to the adjustment ****, but they are very much race oriented in their reviews.

If you do decide that you want to run Bilsteins, get with Sam from Respeed (username dj55b) and he will work with you to find what you need. He already has all the information on my rear Bilsteins (which I love, but they are a rough ride compared to Illuminas).




.

 

the shock depends on the spring. (and the weight of the car, and a couple other things). the shock also has a HUGE impact on ride quality. when you get the damping right, the car actually will ride better than stock. to give you some idea, i had a stock low mileage FC, and my friend has an FC with koni's and 400/300 springs, and the koni car rides better!

i'm running illumina's too, and even though my car has stiff springs, its totally fine on the street. DJ55B posted the shock dyno's and i WAG'ed the weight and i set em on 3 and its good everywhere (street and the track). i'm running the MR2 illumina in the front with 350 springs, if you run softer springs than the rx7 illumina might be better.

bilstein; this is perhaps the best shock, however they aren't adjustable, so you have to valve em for your car, which is kind of a big extra step.

koni; we run koni's on the race car, basically just because they are adjustable.

the rear fit is easy for the koni/bilstein, the front is getting a little interesting.

 

For "highly spirited daily driving," I had great service out of my Tokico blues. I put a fresh pair on the rear last year, and am due to replace the fronts now.

The last set, I bought in 1994. Hard to top that for reliability. & they handle well without making your teeth come loose.

 

Alright thanks guys for the information, but I thought it was Billy who was with Re-Speed, what happened?

 

Sold the business to Sam, same great service!

 

I finally ran across the left over piece of pipe that I used to make the spacer:

ID= 1.35 in.

OD=1.50 in.

I fine tuned the length so that it was long enough to not have any play of the insert in the strut tube but short enough that when I tightened the big nut on the top of the tube that all, or almost all of the threads engaged to make it as secure as possible. If you make them too short you may not realize it until you reassemble and test drive, then you will hear it when you drive over rough surfaces such as gravel. Very aggravating, don't ask how I know.

 

Thanks for the spacer info rwatson, I'll take it that ID and OD stand for inner diameter and outer diameter. I finally decided that I'll go with Tokico blues and B&G springs. Thanks guys for all the help you've given me.

 

anyone know the parts number for the rear koni adjustables?

 

I might have it at home.... may have to crawl under the car!

I pulled the front Konis a few months ago. I should have them rebuilt, but maybe I'll just sell them in the parts forum.

 

I would like to know also. Think Ill get these next

 

I broke down and bought a pair of KYB GR-2 front's, available from Rock Auto (they were on sale and I had a discount, heh). I plan on dimensioning them and the two replacement tube caps that come with them to within an RCH, so we'll have some interesting data. Including how they play with RB springs.

I'm hoping I can talk the guys at Racing Beat into letting me dimension one of their FB-specific Tokicos, for comparison.

 

Where did you get your koni's and what car were they supposed to be for, for the front and rear?

 

My old instruction sheet says something like 1027-05-00-97.

 

On the rear FOX Mustang shocks are bolt on for an FB. The DA Yellow Koni's for FOX mustangs are easy to find and work really well.

 

Does it matter what year?

 

we've got 1 guy on the team with a mustang, and another with an FB, and they compared setups, and found out they were running the same thing!