Well... here is my response from KONI...
grammar and punctuation errors and all... Hopefully he was "texting while driving" when he sent this or KONI is in a world of hurt when it comes to reasonably literate employees. HA!
Tony,
Thank you for your interest in KONI shocks. Unfortunately no longer offer any offer any applications for the X1/9's. As they have been discontinued for many years.
Mason O’Hara
KONI North America
1961A International Way
Hebron, Ky. 41048
859 488-0324
www.koni-na.com
www.koniracing.com
www.konirv.com
I fear that in order for anyone here to capitalize on this process that it will indeed need to be to reverse engineered as you stated... and then looked into what KONI currently has available to see what "Cut-A-Strut" "cartridge would work.
Additionally... WAY BACK in the OLD DAYS the X1/9 had "rebuildable" struts. You simply removed the top NUT on top where the strut rod went though and replaced the oil and innards. They were NOT gas charged.
Several folks out there manufactured gas-charged "cartridges" that simply dropped in and the nut was slid over the new strut rod and the entire cartridge was held in place. I rebuilt mine using a set of these and they seemed to be much stiffer that the current KYB's available to today.
I am pretty sure they are no longer available and unfortunately I tossed MY rebuildable struts over a decade ago before I knew of their value. I thought all of them were rebuildable because when I went to buy new ones... my local suppliers only offered up the cartridge insert at the time.
ANYWAY... this might HELP anyone wanting to go through the trouble of re-engineering some struts. Maybe NOS can be found or even some dimensions, I'm fairly sure none are produced anymore. Here is a list of OLD cartridges I posted many years ago:
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[FONT=Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Tahoma, Arial]Strut Cartridge Numbers by make:
1. Gabriel G 44733 $29 - 39 DOLLARS
2. KYB 363017 $61 - 170 Dollars
3. Monroe MR844 ?
4. Pedders Comfort 8772 $129 Dollars (OZ?)
LASTLY...
New KYB's all around will be $300 bucks no matter how you massage it. One guy here offers them for 45 bucks and then wants 20 bucks apiece to ship. That might be only $260 for a set then if taxes are not a factor.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...RS0&_nkw=fiat+x1/9+struts&ghostText=&_sacat=0
That's all I got... HTH...
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