Hey,
My struts are on their way out. I'm looking into getting some Koni's or something close, but i was told by someone that it took 3 hours to replace them. Is this true? cuz that sounds like a longass time to swap out struts. plmk
Thanx,
Zach

 

It's easy; they don't have any struts!

The FD has four shocks, and they are not too hard to install, but not drop dead simple, either. I wrote a how-to for the rears and then ran out of steam before I wrote the front how-to. The shop manual is very clear and there are probably at least a few how-tos on the web if you search. There have been posts in the forum with various details, too, that you could find with a search.

Here's my page for the rears:
http://www.maxcooper.com/rx7/how-to/...on/shocks.html

-Max

 

Thanx for the reply, maxcooper. I just got the Mazda shop manual yesterday so i'll take a look @ that and the site you gave me and see what i can do. Just gotta decide wether to go all out and get Konis or just get regular stock shocks.

Peace,
Zach

 

Thanks, Max! I can't figure out why so many FD Rx7 owner call their shocks, "struts". Our suspensions are coil-spring-over-shocks. There are NO MacPherson struts anywhere on our FD Rx7s (that design is for economy cars, anyway!).

 

Zach, go for the Konis or get some Bilsteins. Stock shocks from Mazda probably cost more and who knows what you'd get from Midas or a place like that. You can get good basic shocks for $115 to $150 each or so.

SleepR1, I got a quote to replace the shocks on my daily-driver Integra from Pep Boyz* once and they insisted that it had struts (it doesn't) which carried a much higher installation labor charge. I know they are harder to change than your average shocks, but they are still shocks. It still has the old shocks on it.

-Max

* I know, it's Pep Boys, but I wanted to spice it up a little with the z.

 

Strange I noted that 3 gen could use a shock tower brace and not a strut tower brace sense there is no strut ,some time ago and you would have thought I had killed someone.

 

I just put the Koni shocks in my FD. Probably took about 3 hours total with 2 of us working on it. The rears were really easy but the fronts we had to pull the upper, is it a wishbone I guess? I wish I had set them to the lowest setting, I used medium with stock springs and now my car sits 1/2" higher than the worn stockers did.
If you want Koni go to www.shox.com. They sold them to me at wholesale, free shipping. I don't remember the total price but it was less than Checker wanted for the cheap KYB's.

 

Yeah, I feel guilty every time I call it a strut tower brace.

-Max