strut nuts on top of shock tower, how tight, how much spin

[fivespeedsteed]

how much should the struts spin in the shock tower? ive got the bolts pretty damn tight, but i can grab that 7/8s nut on top and the driver side is fairly easy to spin, i can spin the shaft of it with relative ease, but the passenger side requires a little more effort. what can be the cause of this?

 

[ShortThrow50]

hey bud, your not gonna be able to do it that way. you wont get it near tight enough becuase you have to compress the bushing. and will be near impossible to hold the rod from spinning while you attemtp to get it tight enough. you need an impact wrench. the rod wont spin with the impact wrench (gun or what have you). How the heck did you even get the old bolts off lol? I use a 79 dollar cordless from pep boys. it has 200 ft pounds torque and well worth the money. If you dont want to go this route just drive the car the way it is and take it to a garage and pay the guy 5 bucks to hammer them on for you.

 

[fivespeedsteed]

wouldnt the strut shaft spin if you just hammer down on that nut?

 

[ShortThrow50]

wouldnt the strut shaft spin if you just hammer down on that nut?

no it spin a tad but it wont be able to keep up with the hammer. you will be amazed at how much more it tightens down. at this rate, every time you go over a bump you will here that loose strut.

 

[fivespeedsteed]

i dont realy have a bump induced knocking though. its just at almost full lock and its just a simple pop, or knock of the sort. nothing like my balljoints did. also my wheels are shuttering when you crank the wheels sitting still. when you turn sitting still too the strut spins in the cc plate.

 

[ShortThrow50]

At least stop by one of your buddies shops or anybodys shop and have him hit it with the hammer. Everyones probably closed right now though huh. dont make me go out to my car with my video camera and take that bolt off and put it back on lol

 

[HISSIN50]

The nut should not spin easily on the strut even when loose (most struts seem to use a prevailing torque method). There should be an inserted metal bushing inside the durometric bushing. As you cinch the nut up, the metal bushing (sleeve) will allow the nut to get tight.

Because using air tools on struts can damage them, I don't do it myself.

Good luck.

 

[fivespeedsteed]

so the bearing in the caster camber plate is what your tlaking about? or theres a bearing in the strut? i dont mean just the nut is spinning, i mean the nut and the part of the strut, you can see it all turning, the slot and everything. not the cc plate though.

 

[HISSIN50]

Because the nut is prevailing torque, it will spin the strut shaft unless you hold the strut shaft still.

When I said bushing, I mean the metal sleeve in the CC plate that the strut slides through. Once you get the strut nut tight, it will get real hard to turn because you'll be trying to compress metal sleeves.

It sounds like you need a better way of holding the strut shaft still so you can torque the nuts down better.