Vapour Trails

I spent this afternoon replacing the stock springs and dampers at the rear. Everything went smooth but I do have oneproblem I cant figure out.

How do you torque the top nut on the rear shocks to 30 lbs-ft if you need to use 2 open end wrenches to tighten at all? If I use my torque wrench with a socket, the top nut and shaft move simultaneously. I can only tighten the nut whenI use a 8 mm open end wrench on thestem, and a 17 mmopen end wrench on the nut.[sm=helpout.gif]This obviously doesn't allow me to set the torque.

Also, the rear shock cam with 2 nuts, which both fit on the stem. I just used the large one as it resembled the stock nut. What is the smaller one for?

I also re-used all the fasteners & used blue loctite. The nuts have like 2 threads of nylon, the rest metal.Why anyone would bother replacing the hardware on the sway bar is beyond me - there is no safety issue if these fasteners fail. I achieved full torque on all the re-used fasteners. Now if I pulled the shocks again I would get new bolts (and a bottle of KY).

Norm Peterson

There"s a special kind of open-end "wrench" thingie that fits up to your square drive set called, variously,a "crow-foot" or "crow"s-foot". You have to correct the torque for the longer total leverage that you now have against the fastener.No idea where that name came from, though.

My guess would be as some sort of locknut. You tighten the two together to resist one by itself loosening.

I"ll go as far as "probably not a severe safety hazard, most of the time for most folks in mild to moderate driving", but if the front sta-bar suddenly disconnects at one of its endlinks when you"re cornering hard you might get some, ummm, suddenly unusual handling characteristics. Not everybody likes handling "surprises" or copes with them very well.


Norm

Vapour Trails

Thanks for the reply. I thought there might be some sort of other attachement I needed. I just bought the torque wrench to finally do a job correctly and I wasn't able to torque any of the struts/shocks beyond what feels reasonable. [:@]It's the same issue for the front end links, upper bolt/nut - the nuts spins with the bolt. You could use a rachet on that bolt stem (8 mm ) but good luck at achieved 85 lbs-ft before you break your 1/4" rachet (I don't have an 8 mm that fits a 3/8" rachet).

When it comes to these fasteners, what is failure? I thought it would be the inability to stay tight. Would these bolts actually shear off? Those fasteners look like some pretty heavy duty hardware.

Norm Peterson

In general terms, endlinks and their fasteners can and do break at least occasionally. So can the brackets, with some designs being more susceptible to this than others. Loose mostly means noise at first, but if the play is allowed to remain indefinitely the bolt and the bracket it goes through are put into a sort of local bending that isn't good for either. The hole can "wallow out", or the bolt could possibly fatigue and break (most likely through a thread). If the bracket is improperly welded to the strut, the bracket itself can tear loose from the strut since the impact loading when the clearance is taken up can be worse than the normally occurringload due to the roll resistance of the bar. Note that this very weld defect actually did occur in a number of the early aftermarket struts provided by one of the big upgrade names commonly discussed for this car, but thankfully the problem has been addressed/eliminated.


Norm

doogyhap

I was able to torque all my D specs to the proper torque. Its all about having the right tools. I used a torque adaptor instead of a crows foot, but a crows foot should work fine. Also large knippex pliers hold that 8mm stud very well without stripping it. Knippex has teethless adjustable pliers that allow you to put pressure on the part. They are great for installing bushing too. The only drawback is they are around $80.00.

Vapour Trails

I got a set of crow foots from the father-in-law although I've been to lazy to check the torque yet.

scramblr

I torqued mine down by feel two years ago and have been fine...

blueherd02gt

Not to jack this thread but what do you guys have your dspecs set to? Front and rear

Sleeper_08

street 4 front and rear
road course 2 front and 2.5 rear

scramblr

Really depends on the road conditions. I've lived in two separate places since installing them. First place I had them 4f 5r. Where I live now I have them 3f 3.5r. For long road trips I go 6 all the way around. At the track 6f, 2.5 passenger rear, 3.0 drivers rear. Love the adjustability of these things!!!