Hello

I took apart my Tein SS to de-grime/rust and install polyurthane shock mount bushings... but upon installation I became confused...

The manual and other DIYs state to torque the top-hat bolt to 22lbs/ft.. Well when I installed it with a torque wrench it never clicked at 22(wrench is in proper working order, use it all the time on my vehicles)

I tightened it down now so much that the shock rod spins.. and theres a lot of those showing past the tophat..

-did I F@*&% up lol? or am I okay with the installation?
-does this reduce the amount of shock travel I will have if I leave it this way?
-loosing it or tighten determine its preload?







THANKS!

 

its fine, you want that nut as low as possible with as much thread showing.

it GIVES you MORE shock travel this way.

 

Really? thats good, could you explain how it helps? I thought that extra showing past the tophat is shock travel removed lol.

Here is the diagram I used to put the coilovers back together, I got it from Tein's website...

now that I looked again, its showing 2 washers under the tophat..I did everything In the OEM tophat description but I didn't install the washer circled in red(I didn't have one)... how would that make a difference?



Thanks guys!

 

Isn't there a tapered washer that is on the shaft as the bottom of the stack of the top hat parts. I believe that you are tightening the nut and clamping the bushing down to the tapered washer. Under that washer is the bump stop. Shock travel is from the taper washer down, to bump stop or bottom out. You change the top hat bushing clamping force and compression of the bushings, not travel. Too loose allows the shaft some movement within the hat. If you could clamp enough, then you pinch the metal shaft collar. A low will spin the shaft in the shock as the bushings grip against each other. On Tein SS there is a 2 sided flat on the top of the threaded shaft. That is for a wrench, can’t remember the size, to hold the rod from rotation when you tighten. Not great for the shock to keep spinning it. And yes, there is a lot of thread that will show.

 

I didn't have a tapered washer, just a larger black/grey flat washer at the bottom...Like the diagram shows 2washers at the bottom(if thats the tapered washer you are referring too)I didn't have one =/..

heres all the materials that were included in the tophats on all 4 and install order:

-nut
-bronze washer
-poly shock bushing
-collar
-oem tophat
-poly shock bushing
-black/grey flat washer

 

Does one washer at the bottom tighten onto the taper in the rod? That is still a stop. Sorry, it was long enough ago that I could not remember which shock had the thick tapered bottom washer.

 

Yes the flat washer is pressed against a tappered secetion on the shock rod...

Did a quick picture on paint with Tein SS rod anatomy and my Oem Tophat install LOL

 

So it seems correct to you now?

 

Yea after going over everything, I was correct, I was just confused as teins diagram showed a second washer under the tophat(circled in red in previous post)

AND I wasn't use to so much threads showing at the top compared to look at the oem shocks on my car now & some other aftermarket setups i've seen in the past.

It has always looked something like that, where the nut is threaded on just a bit..



Thanks very much, I greatly appreciate it!