just finished installing rear shocks and springs in my car. Problem is the nut on the top of the spring/shock assembly (holds down the top spring perch) didn't really screw down that much. The top of the shock rod is screws down on is barely cleared on one and the other didn't go all the way through. the springs were completely compressed when the top screw was being tightened. One of the rods on one of the shocks started spinning so the nut couldn;t really be torqued down. i put a sealing compound on the nuts just to be safe.

question is how safe is this? Any ideas why the nuts wouldn't screw down. I had no choice but to reinstall them with the top bolts like that. AM i looking for trouble by leaving them like that or will it be fine? rod spinning on shock bad? Sorry for the long post but any help will go a long way for me. thx.

 

there should be a fitting for an allen rinch or some thing on top. that way you could turn the nut with out the bolt moving. warning if you tried to get it to tighten up by turnning it you might have blown the shock.

 

It was just the threaded shock rod. top nut was just supposed to screw down on it... but it didn't. So is my shock blown because the rod was spinning with the nut?

 

no, its not neccesarly blown. check the order of the washers below the pillow mount. Good luck!

 

[Modified by XEventHorizonX, 11:02 AM 1/18/2003]

 

Like others have mentioned, you need to use an allen wrench to keep the shock piston from turning and use a box-ended wrench to tighten the nut.