[sgarnett]

The upper mounting hat/stud on one of my front Konis is toast. It looks like something salvaged from an old shipwreck. When I sprayed WD40 on it (no wrench involved) the nut started crumbling. The stud was no better, and it was also rusted solid in the upper rubber and steel mount.

However, the rest of the shock is still good, and I was able to get the hat off fairly easily once I had cut it out of the upper mount (not a fun job).

Koni in Cincinnati is looking for a hat for me (should know by Thursday afternoon) but even if they find one I wouldn't mind picking up a spare.

If you have a spare hat that has already been removed from the shock that would be cheaper to ship, but as long as the hat (including threads!) is good and not rusty I don't care if it's attached to a total junk shock.

[sgarnett]

Sorry Sam, I just misunderstood. I appreciate and pursued your tip about calling Koni for the hats, and I appreciate the brake parts YOU expedited.

Koni said they didn't have the part, and said there wouldn't be any more shocks in until Tuesday. Somehow I thought your Koni supplier in Ohio was Koni in Ohio (looking back, I think you did say Dayton vs Cinci ... I can only plead premature senility) but you raise a fair point. I should have called back to double check instead of assuming - you DID turn away the sale to help me try to find a cheaper alternative first.

Incidentally, I bought one shock and two new mounts, not a pair of shocks. I may regret this later, but since my shocks are still good I'm just going to swap the hat from the new shock onto the old shock and shelve my new spare. I didn't want to spring for two.