MM CC plate installation

growlinGT · Apr 10, 2008

I have a 00 GT with H&R SS springs and stock struts & shocks (upgrading to Tokico HP this weekend). I bought the MM CC plates because they seem to be highly recommended by a lot of people here.

I installed the CC plates with "lowered" configuration on the spacer placement recommended by MM. The front of the car seems to be approx. 1/4 inch higher and there is gap between strut shaft nut and top spacer. I am using 1 small spacer on the bottom side and 2 large and 1 small spacer on the top. I understand that the CC plates do not change the ride height so I called MM for some technical support. The person said it is impossible and didn't have any recommendation for me.

Any ideas on where I might have messed up?

Protege · Apr 10, 2008

I am helping him install this stuff.

There's another issue we're having. We're using an impact wrench to tighten the shaft nuts, and we can't tighten them enough to get rid of the gap between the nut and the MM 16mm ID spacers even though there's plenty of thread left on the shaft. What gives?

I'm also wondering if a lot of people are having a hard time installing the dust boot on the bump stop provided by MM. The bump stop has a larger diameter and the dust boot won't slide over it. WTF?

Superhereaux · Apr 10, 2008

you guys didn't mention it but if you haven't, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS

if you did try re-arranging the spacers. i have 1 spacer on top and the rest on the bottom. as far as the dust boot and bump stops i can't help you as the Bilsteins use their own but i do remember the instructions mentioning something about them on Tokicos

Protege · Apr 10, 2008

We did read the instructions. And we tried rearranging the spacers. We tried several combinations but none eliminated the gap. The only combo we haven't tried is having all spacers on top. Right now we have a small one on the bottom, the rest on top.

It still puzzles me why the shaft nut won't thread any lower than it is despite having plenty of thread left on the shaft. Weird.

deftsound · Apr 10, 2008

I gave up on mine, I had the same problem and i rode around for a week with my front suspension sounding like it was falling apart.

I finally brought it to my local performance shop and got them to do it right. I'm not sure what they did to fix it but i can go count the spacers on top if you want...

growlinGT · Apr 10, 2008

Thanks, that would help.

By the way, what kind of Tokico struts/shocks do you have?

mransr · Apr 10, 2008

have you tried putting a floor jack under the control arm and raising it to put some more weight on that corner?

that should let you tighten up the nut correctly

deftsound · Apr 10, 2008

i have tokico blues, ill go out and check here in a minute

growlinGT · Apr 10, 2008

mransr said:
have you tried putting a floor jack under the control arm and raising it to put some more weight on that corner?

that should let you tighten up the nut correctly

I did place the floor jack under the control arm and raised it to the point where the whole front wanted to lift and still no solution

Also, we are using air tool at ~90psi to the point where the strut shaft is rotating and it seems like we are not doing anything to the strut nut past that point.

mransr · Apr 10, 2008

the shaft has to be all the way up or it will just spin when you try and draw the nut down...

growlinGT · Apr 10, 2008

Any idea what's the worst that can happen if I use extra spacers/washers to consume that gap?

This will be my last resort.

mransr · Apr 10, 2008

so with the full weight on the car and the strut fully extended it's not up against the CC plate? if that's the case and everything else is correct I think you'd have to put more spacers on the bottom...

but without out seeing it it's hard to say for sure what's up...

Protege · Apr 11, 2008

mransr said:
the shaft has to be all the way up or it will just spin when you try and draw the nut down...

The shaft was spinning even before we started taking anything off (still had the stock upper mount). The car was on the ground and I was trying to break the torque on the shaft nuts using a socket wrench and a cheater bar. I noticed I was spinning the shaft, so I reached for the impact wrench... and got the nuts loose.

mransr said:
so with the full weight on the car and the strut fully extended it's not up against the CC plate? if that's the case and everything else is correct I think you'd have to put more spacers on the bottom...

but without out seeing it it's hard to say for sure what's up...

Funny thing is, the more spacers we had on the bottom the bigger the gap on top was (nut to spacers). That's why we went with a small spacer on the bottom and the rest on top (per MM's instructions to have at least one spacer on the bottom to extend bearing life etc.).

What do you mean by "the strut fully extended"? Even if the strut shaft can extend any further, the bump stop is preventing it from doing so.

What would you like to see? Here's where we are right now:

All 4 wheels on the ground.

Protege · Apr 11, 2008

Anyway, we should be picking up his Tokico HP's tomorrow.

Hopefully they'll solve the problem. Just for reference... so we won't have to figure this shyte out for ourselves.... Anyone out there with the same setup.... how many spacers did you use top and bottom? Setup is H&R SS springs, non-adjustable Tokico's (HP series, for lowered cars - HB3026 front / HE3723 rear).

Night Shifter · Apr 11, 2008

I have sportlines which are pretty much the same as your springs and i have the same struts/shock you have..I have the 2 big spacers on top and the small ones on bottom and mine look just like yours and they are doing me just fine.. my car is also set up for open track though, which is why the spacers are flip fliopped....and my top plates are in - camber whereas yours are in +.. but hrere's a pic if it helps any

oh and as for the shaft on the strut turning with the nut, mine did that too.. i had to break out the air tools for this one... so if you got em, use em

Superhereaux · Apr 11, 2008

my bilsteins had an 8mm hex on the very top of the strut shaft to use as a counter-hold while i used a 21mm wrench to tighten the nut

i ran into the same problem you did when i tried to use my impact alone

urban96 · Apr 12, 2008

i had to play around with with raising/lowering the control arm to get it to tighten (dont remember what one did the trick)

have u checked if u can close the hood with the struts sticking up that high?

liv4him · Apr 12, 2008

Im new here and Im just about to order new struts and cc plates, it seems this job can be a nightmare. I would like to know the outcome, Please follow up!

2k3gt · Apr 12, 2008

I have my MM C/C plates sitting right next to me here and shocks/struts on order. I also run H&R SS springs.

Subscribing

Protege · Apr 12, 2008

Superhereaux said:
my bilsteins had an 8mm hex on the very top of the strut shaft to use as a counter-hold while i used a 21mm wrench to tighten the nut

That's awesome. I wish the Tokicos had that.

We installed the new struts and used the MM recommended spacer configuration (3 below, 1 on top of the bearing) and solved the problem of the nut not being able to go all the way down. All is well now.

Installing the rear shocks was a bitch because he's got the Mach something stereo system with those amps under the rear dash and that prevented us from using the impact wrench to remove/install the shaft nuts - not enough space to fit the impact in there with the amps above the shock towers.

We ended up removing the whole speaker enclosure with the amps so we could use the impact wrench. What a PITA.

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