Strut assembly problems (aka "How I got my struts assembled for free")
08-02-2011, 02:14 PM
#1
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Thread Starter
Strut assembly problems (aka "How I got my struts assembled for free")
Since this is only my second post on here (I've been reading for the last month though) I'll give a little background. I've been working on cars since high school, at first because I needed something to break, then because I needed to fix it to get to school/work. At the time I had an 85 RX-7 that had any number of problems. I drove it through HS, college, and then some, and finally got to the point where I was spending more money fixing it than I wanted to, and bought an Acura. 3 years later I sold the Acura (it was a great car, just kind of boring and couldn't tow anything) and bought my first Tacoma, a 2003 Double Cab with the TRD Off-road package and 118k miles on it. The truck has been well maintained, but still had a few issues I wanted to take care of. The primary one being replacing the worn out stock suspension with an OME lift kit (OMETAC04LK). I ordered the kit online, and that's where the fun began...
I decided to tackle the rear leafs first, took about 20 hours of work, of which approximately half was getting the front hangar bolts out. They were seized in so badly that no amount of PB blaster, heat, impact wrench, or any other method would get them out. I eventually went out and bought a 4.5" grinder and cutoff wheel to get them out. That got about half-way through the bolt. The 5" wheel I went and bought after that got another half of the way through, and to get the rest of the way through I had to remove the guard and hope I have a steady hand (yes, I know it's not the best idea). Eventually I finished the rear leafs/shocks and took it for a test drive. Despite feeling like I was leaning over the steering wheel (~3.5" lift in the rear), the ride from the OME system is much improved over stock.
Since my weekend was gone and I had managed to give myself peroneal (not to be confused with perineal) nerve palsy from being in a squatting position all weekend, I drove the truck to work with only the rear done all week and took on the front end this past Sunday. Disassembly went smoothly and I took the struts in to Farm & Fleet to have them compress and assemble the new parts. Took them about a half hour and when I looked at what they had done, it took about 2 seconds to see they had screwed them up. First problem was that they hadn't lined the bottom plate up with the end of the springs, second was that the top plate studs didn't line up correctly with the bottom eyelet. I pointed this out to the service manager, and he quickly re-compressed the springs and lined everything up correctly. Next problem... the top nut wasn't fully tightened down. On one it was close, and the dust boot had just a small amount of play, on the second strut it was clearly not tightened down enough, there were about half the number of threads exposed as on the first strut. I pointed this out to him, and he said, "No problem, I'll just put the impact on and tighten it up." I suggested that he should probably compress the spring first as the nut was probably going to screw up the top washer if he tried that, but he assured me that they do it all the time and it wouldn't be a problem. About 15 minutes later he came and told me the shock was destroyed and he was going to have to heat it up to get the nut off and the spring back out. Needless to say I was not happy, but I did my best to remain calm and talk through the issue
. Fortunately he was very apologetic, and assured me that they would pay for the new shock and not charge for the labor.
So from all of this I have a couple questions...
1. How tight does the top nut need to be? On the strut that wasn't destroyed, the dust boot has a small amount of movement when not installed in the truck. Once it's in the truck with some weight on it though, the strut compresses and the dust boot no longer moved.
2. Should I tighten the top nut up some more now that the strut is in the truck with the weight of the front end resting on it? Should I just leave well enough alone?
3. As far as I can tell, the top nut is primarily there to keep the strut together when it's out of the truck, when the weight of the vehicle is on the struts shouldn't the forces from the spring be transferred to the frame instead of that top nut?
I'm hoping that I don't need to pull the good strut back out again and have them tighten up the top nut again, but if it's a major concern then that's what I'll have to do. I'm driving out of town this weekend and don't have time to order another replacement if they screw up another shock.
Thanks for the help,
-David
EDIT: I found this post where someone had a similar issue, didn't see any resolution though.
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/o...roblem-186260/
I decided to tackle the rear leafs first, took about 20 hours of work, of which approximately half was getting the front hangar bolts out. They were seized in so badly that no amount of PB blaster, heat, impact wrench, or any other method would get them out. I eventually went out and bought a 4.5" grinder and cutoff wheel to get them out. That got about half-way through the bolt. The 5" wheel I went and bought after that got another half of the way through, and to get the rest of the way through I had to remove the guard and hope I have a steady hand (yes, I know it's not the best idea). Eventually I finished the rear leafs/shocks and took it for a test drive. Despite feeling like I was leaning over the steering wheel (~3.5" lift in the rear), the ride from the OME system is much improved over stock.
Since my weekend was gone and I had managed to give myself peroneal (not to be confused with perineal) nerve palsy from being in a squatting position all weekend, I drove the truck to work with only the rear done all week and took on the front end this past Sunday. Disassembly went smoothly and I took the struts in to Farm & Fleet to have them compress and assemble the new parts. Took them about a half hour and when I looked at what they had done, it took about 2 seconds to see they had screwed them up. First problem was that they hadn't lined the bottom plate up with the end of the springs, second was that the top plate studs didn't line up correctly with the bottom eyelet. I pointed this out to the service manager, and he quickly re-compressed the springs and lined everything up correctly. Next problem... the top nut wasn't fully tightened down. On one it was close, and the dust boot had just a small amount of play, on the second strut it was clearly not tightened down enough, there were about half the number of threads exposed as on the first strut. I pointed this out to him, and he said, "No problem, I'll just put the impact on and tighten it up." I suggested that he should probably compress the spring first as the nut was probably going to screw up the top washer if he tried that, but he assured me that they do it all the time and it wouldn't be a problem. About 15 minutes later he came and told me the shock was destroyed and he was going to have to heat it up to get the nut off and the spring back out. Needless to say I was not happy, but I did my best to remain calm and talk through the issue
. Fortunately he was very apologetic, and assured me that they would pay for the new shock and not charge for the labor.So from all of this I have a couple questions...
1. How tight does the top nut need to be? On the strut that wasn't destroyed, the dust boot has a small amount of movement when not installed in the truck. Once it's in the truck with some weight on it though, the strut compresses and the dust boot no longer moved.
2. Should I tighten the top nut up some more now that the strut is in the truck with the weight of the front end resting on it? Should I just leave well enough alone?
3. As far as I can tell, the top nut is primarily there to keep the strut together when it's out of the truck, when the weight of the vehicle is on the struts shouldn't the forces from the spring be transferred to the frame instead of that top nut?
I'm hoping that I don't need to pull the good strut back out again and have them tighten up the top nut again, but if it's a major concern then that's what I'll have to do. I'm driving out of town this weekend and don't have time to order another replacement if they screw up another shock.
Thanks for the help,
-David
EDIT: I found this post where someone had a similar issue, didn't see any resolution though.
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/o...roblem-186260/
Last edited by dmwahl; 08-02-2011 at 02:21 PM. Reason: Add a link at end
08-03-2011, 06:18 AM
#3
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Thread Starter
I'm wondering if they did bottom out the nut and the dust boot is just normally a bit loose before it goes in the truck. 18 ft-lb isn't too much so I'm assuming it's just to make sure you have it all the way down. Thanks for the reply.
08-03-2011, 08:43 AM
#4
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OH i should be clear. I just replaced shocks with bilsteins. Kept the top hat/spring assembly stock.
I don't know what mine was tightened down to. My buddy just ran a small impact wrench on it but the top bushing looked just as squished as it was from the factory so i figured its ok.
I don't know what mine was tightened down to. My buddy just ran a small impact wrench on it but the top bushing looked just as squished as it was from the factory so i figured its ok.
08-03-2011, 09:02 AM
#5
Registered User
Thread Starter
I just received my replacement shock, and took a couple measurements to figure out how far down the nut should be on the OME shocks (ARB N91S) assuming it's tightened down to the thread runout as would be implied by a torque spec of any kind.
The length of the threaded portion is 0.964", and the supplied nut is .460" tall, so I should expect to see about 0.50" from the top of the nut to the top of the stud it threads onto. I'll bring along a caliper when I have this one assembled later tonight and post the results.
The length of the threaded portion is 0.964", and the supplied nut is .460" tall, so I should expect to see about 0.50" from the top of the nut to the top of the stud it threads onto. I'll bring along a caliper when I have this one assembled later tonight and post the results.
08-03-2011, 08:38 PM
#6
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Thread Starter
Got the strut built and and truck put back together, turns out the dust boot is just a little loose until you put it in the truck and put some weight on it. The Old Man Emu (OME) suspension ride is amazing, I've heard it's good but you really have to feel it to believe it. I purposefully drove off the curb backing out of my driveway, and it's like it wasn't even there. Well worth the money.
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