Just changed out my front struts this past weekend. The first one took about 3 hours (since I didn't know what I was doing) and the second took an hour.

Anyway, how tight do I tighten the nut that holds the strut and the spring together? Below is the pic of how tight it is currently. I just tightened it a "good amount." Thanks.

 

I think the torques specs are 25 ft/lbs-not much. I don't have my manual with me at the moment, but I think that is the correct number. If you tightened it without the torque wrench, but got it pretty tight, I am sure you are good. Judging from the threads showing in the picture, it looks pretty good.

 

tight is tight

 

It should bottom out - call that snug - then give it a bit more and call it tight. Or torque...

 

.. I'll do it for a beer....

 

Thanks, guys. I'll put some loctite on it, too.

Deal. Just remember it's an 8 hour round trip for you.

 

If the nut is a nylock (ie has a nylon insert that deforms when installed) you don't need to use loctite too.
.....it won't hurt anything if you did either, just unnecessary.

The spec on the nut is 22 ft-lbs, but anything slightly above will be fine (I put mine on with a 3/8" impact gun).

 

22 ft/lbs. Got it. Thanks.

And for those that are looking into doing this. The best advice given to me was to soak the bolts & nuts in PB Blaster for a couple of days. I sprayed some on there everyday for about 5 days and they came out with relative ease.

 

I really had no problems changing out my shocks. I did squirt everything with PB Blaster a few days before doing mine and I know that helped. Everything came loose pretty easy.

My problem, for those thinking about doing it, was getting the bolts on the top plate and bottom shock eye lined up. It's obvious to me now, but it never crossed my mind to do that, so keep that in mind. I totally didn't realize that was necessary on the first one and had to compress it again. I even had to do it on the second one because I put it back together and it was just a wee bit off and I was too tired to "make" it fit.

 

Hey pNut thats a nut not a bolt.

 

Nic - I didn't even think about that on the first one, but luckily, it lined itself up. The second one was off, and I found that out after I had already put everything together. It was cold outside, I was tired and I didn't want to mess with it, so I just took a metal bar, placed it in the hole on the bottom of the strut and twisted it to line it up. Worked pretty well.


Shaddup.

 

That is how I got the first one to fit. I used a big fat Phillips screwdriver to get it lined up and I then pushed the bolt through.

I tried that with the second one, but I never could get it just right for some odd reason. If I had another person helping, I could have used both hands to twist the shock into place while the other person put the bolt in-it was that darn close.

It made me mad to have to compress it again. When I did, I only moved the top plate just a millimeter. After that, the shock assembly went in perfectly without even using the screwdriver for the bottom hole.

I did mine about two months ago when the weather was nice, so at least I didn't have to suffer in the cold like you did.

 

Probally a little more I am 7127 miles from home