What do you guys use to keep the shaft from spinning when tightening this nut? Something along the lines of pliers with a rubber mouth?

 

I am not sure about the basics, but SS have a top on shaft with flats that you wrench. Most shafts are fairly hardened if you have to grasp, and you can do that above the damper travel.

 

There are flats on the shaft but I just dont want to mangle any of the threads for the nut. With my previous set of kyb agx struts I mangled them quite a bit. I probably just need to be a bit more careful

 

On SS you can hold the flats from turning with an open end wrench. No mangling. I have grasped the shafts on others, without flats, with vice grips, above the "washer" and under the threads, in the portion that is not contact by the damper. I also found that I left no marks.