and here are the mounts all ready. just need to lube em up.
now i only have one concern. originally one of the front pillow mounts was frozen. i fixed that after soaking it in parts cleaner for two days it got rid of most of the rust and of course any lubrication that was in there.
now the problem is that most of the pillow mounts are suppose to have a smooth continuous movement as the car turns, but in my case since it was frozen the bearing in the mount actually "pops" into movement without much force unlike the other side where it has no popin but a "continous movement"

the bearing im talking about is the center part of the front mount which the strut goes through.

Whats the deal with those B13 front mounts? are they custom?

the b13 *metal* thrust bearing is meant to replace the stock b15 *plastic* bearing.  less prone to cracking, breaking, fall apart with hard driving

thrust bearing is
54329-16AOO

thrust bearing is literally like putting  a washer on . its that simple to change to b13.
i ordered my front mounts from monroe suspensions over autozone. and they came
with the new screws. although if u have a strut bar id probably just say get that gasket as well
so theres no metal to metal contact. i mean its only bout a buck so....

the perch was a huge discussion between me and my autos teacher basically the only thing i could think of welding on was
the perch tthat came for the rear with konis because i wont be using it anyways thing is form what my most welders
would crack the housing he recemonded me to take it to
a shop, but instead i just used a grinder to fabricate from original perch..
it was a grinder attached to a bench because the perch is pretty thick metal and required a lot of force to actually grind the metal...
pinkknockout used to run b15motorsports.net and they sold pillow mounts for front and solid ones for rear...he sold his car and
the sites been pretty inactive since...

Ahh this is where the fun starts for koni/gc setup..installing them is like a guessing game. i have my koni/gc since last july. and my advice...
1: No on 6" springs - get the 7 or 8 inch springs, putting a 6" springs on the front will leave you 2inches wheel travel and 1inch dropped from your stock ride height  (even tho the spring seat collar ride height adjusted all the way up). If you put that dampening force settings on your front konis between all the way soft to 60-70% stiff, that 6" spings will still compressed all the way and bottoms out if you hit a dip or bumps on the freeways. Running between 80-100 hard settings on konis, well its pretty harsh on a bumpy freeway. Today i just set my front konis to 80% stiff or hard settings and im gonna drive it from Los angeles to las vegas. I will let you know if it still bottoms out

note: i recommend you not to use full stiffs setting on the front for daily drive unless your crazy....lol

2: You dont really need to cut or grind the front stock perches, well i kept mine just incase i want to switch to eibach or back to stock springs. Just put the gc coil sleeve on top of it and you should be fine. For the rear perches, you dont need to weld anything on there, that snap rings on your konis will hold the coil sleeve (basically the rear weight of your car - believe it or not...lol that ring is so small that i called gc and asked them if it will be able to hold the the car's weight and the beatings from bumps/dips they said its fine).

3: If you want to go lower, start rolling up your rear fenders because it will cut your side walls if you gonna go lower ride height...well eventually, this happens only in just one in a thousands but to keep it safe just do it now.

4: Theres a cap installed on top of your front konis right now, if you can take it off easy then thats kool but if its hard to take it off then start working on that right now.

5: Buy a lot of RTV silicone - this will save you from getting a squeeking noise.

6: Your konis came with some other stuff like the perches metals etc (its for the your stock springs or equivalent, incase you want to switch back)- the only thing you need for your gc sleeves is the strut, bolts on top of it, dust covers(that white plastic washers), that hex bolts and self locking washer for the bottom of the front struts.

7: GC sleeve kit - should comes with, 4springs, 4 top hats, 2 supplied washers, 4 coil sleeves, 4 adjustable spring seat collars on your sleeve w/ a hex nut and allenwrench for it, 4 small washers for the bolts on top of your struts and 4 hard rubber o-rings for your front konis 2 on each side. Make sure you recieve everything from gc before you start working on it.

8: Test and see if the konis can be inserted easily on the old struts, if you cant push it all the way in, well you probly gonna need a drill press to push it in

I still have a lot more to learn on this setup but All in all i love the koni/gc, its pretty addicting to drive along with the tanabe 4pt brace, eibach rsb, bfgoodrich kdw and nismo bushing kit....i just need to replace my springs to 7 or 8" now that way i can get back to my stock ride height on the front with my lip on and also my trust bearings

Last edited by Jao2xSpecV2003 (2008-11-22 15:00:18)

gmarrero89 wrote:

what were those white washers for? those plastic white washers that come with the konis

Those white washers are for the bumpstops to rest ontop!

I will probably get 10 inch springs when I get mine...for the front anyways, have to measure the backs to find out how long the stock ones are. I wanna keep full stock ride height and travel for rallies/ Im probbaly gonna run pretty soft springs like 275 front and 225 rear but i have to do the math still.

jao2: the rears just sit on that little yellow ridge on the konis? youre right that doent look like much. I think picknockout used the rear mount that comes with the konis if you use the stock springs for the front struts?

The konis come with bump stops?

Last edited by mattmayhem (2008-11-23 20:07:45)

what springs has he used there?
I'm soooooo not happy with my gc's they came missing parts and GC is fucking impossible to deal with as far as getting things straightened out. even when they screw up.  SO basically I have zer travel in my suspension.

bump im undecided on what to get i drive the car everyday but eventually autox once every other month

got my ground controls today...
its the stock rate sadly...
...i've already run into a few problems with pairing the ksport mounts with this setup...
firstly the tophats have a different sizes diameter and the ksport ..well sorta hard to explain here ate the pics ehe..
the bearing from strut mount sits into the entire tophat from ground controls. i could always use
ksport top hat but than there is just a bit more loose for the spring to move around.

the good




and the bad

ANyone know the parts numbers for the front topmounts and the screws including that long screw that fits the strut tower bar...the rear mounts would be cool to.
I dont want the dealer to just give me the mounts without the washers and screws etc...

nedimv wrote:

im not sure bout the part number for nissam
but its just that when you order front mounts you get new bolts and thurst bearing
there arent really anymore parts than that...
o and the problem im having is that the tophat from ground control goes directly into the bearing from ksport
not allowing the mount to "pivot" ...

There should be some sort of washer maybe to keep them seperate?

nedimv wrote:

no no washers. the only thing there is is a "gasket" like material which is used on top of the strut tower when putting a strut bar on.
other than that its metal to metal contact. with thrust bearing taking all the beating.

I mean you could try and use a washer to fit the GCs with the ksport mounts.

i guess you probly figured it out by now but i see that the ksports front tophat and the gc rear tophat are almost the same and their holes are about the same size...? except for the spring seat of course the gc rear tophat will fit perfectly with your front springs because the front and rear springs are interchangeable. Im not familiar with ksports topmounts but If everything works out good then you only need two more gc rear tophats....need more pics

Humm...not totally clear. Is the GC upper perch supposed to sit up inside the top mount? I thought the top mount would just sit ontop and the thrust bearing would allow the setup to rotate.

nedimv wrote:

yea i mean thats wats supose to happen.. the tophat should fit onto the thrust bearing..but it doesnt. it cant fit onto strut mount....im thinkin just drillin the tophat a lil and should be ok

are you using monroe b13 topmounts to use the b13 metal thrust bearing? that middle ring ridge extended on top of the tophat suppose to go through the thrust bearing's hole. now is that hole too big or too small to fit on the tophat? if you can take a pic of your tophat with just the thrust bearing on it...that would be better. For your topmount...you should return it tell them that it wouldnt fit and then buy the new oem nissan topmount or you can reuse your old one.

I have my koni/gc setup for awhile now with 10k miles on it already and the only problem i have is the 6inch springs on the front. it gave me about 2inches of travel with the collar adjusted all the way up so i had to remove the bumpstop. Check this out i want to replace it and put 7 or 8". Or i can also have it weld a new spring perch about 1 inch higher from the stock perch, but i dont want to take anyrisk like "ie: weld broke off in the long run"

Justin @ Import Car Parts Plus carries all 4 Koni bump stops for $67 shipped I believe.

iam using b15 front mounts which are not oem with thrust bearing directly from dealer.
the outer diameter of the mount where the thurst bearing should fit over is too large.
i think iam just going to drill the tophat from ground control and it will fit fine.
as for bumpstops im not spending 47 dollars or so just for a peice of rubber like matt mentioned
im using the stock bumpstops from ksports which seem oem.
ill be making more progress on this project as winter  break has ended and ihave access to a shop and tools :)

If you look on the energy suspension site they have a bunch of universal shock bumpstops, they MRSP around 8.00$ for a pair which is fairly resonable. Im am gonna order some. You just need to measure the shock rod diameter.

Guys, for the rear GC perch on the konis. Does it sit ontop of the koni ridge and you can only adjust above that or does it hang below the ridge so you can adjust the collar down more.
I ask because I want to run long springs at a softer rate than the normal GC rate...something like 275 front and 250 rear...or maybe 250 all around, at stock height.

If my calculations arent off I should be able to run 10 inch in the rear and 12 in the front. Alot of that hinges on the perches being low enough so I can adjust the height to stock. It would be so much easier if i could fit it all to my car before I order, lol.

nedimv wrote:

for those who have g.c. coilover. how does it fit on stock strut? because as of now the collar will not
sit flat on the perch. i may have bent it or such while triming it? ..
im going to get the rear spring perch that came with konis welded onto the front in replacement of the stock perch
in order for it to sit perfectly flat. wish i had more pics but most of the work is done at skool within a limited amount of time
and i just try to get much work in as possibl ei guess. il try to update with more pics.

Ive been looking at the stock perch wondering what I will do. My idea was to cutoff all of the perch except the area "below" the weld. Basically if you cut everything off and just left the two holes (which would become like rings) on the side which should be flat to hold the sleeve.
Basically you'd cut along the red line in the picture...


ANyways just a working idea. May take it to my shop and have them cut it all off and just make a custom perch.

Did you put the O-ring rubber that came along with the GC kit? 2 on each strut, those O-rings suppose to fix those problem. make sure theres gap between them