Firstly, the bolt attaching the top hat to the strut... how far should that be screwed down for those that have it?

Secondly, and more generally - I was torquing the bolt that attaches the bottom of the strut to the bottom control arm, and apparently my torque wrench wasn't working properly and I stripped the nut that's welded to the bottom of the strut. Also, the threads on the OEM nut is pretty jacked up. What are my solutions here?

What I was thinking was to order a new OEM nut, dremmel the old welded nut off... then just use a locking nut with loctite. Would that suffice and be effectively the same as just having a welded nut on there? I would weld but I don't know how to weld aluminum.

 

Not all shocks have a nut welded in place, as my JRZ dont. I just installed a nut and called it a day.

 

1. Alright so looks like I'm just going to get a new OEM bolt for the bottom of the strut/bottom control arm, dremmel off the old nut previusly attached to the st rut, and then loctite a new nut on. Someone please tell me if this is unsafe.

2. It looks like the washer-beneath-the-dust-guard-and-above-the-bump stop's inner circle somehow got warped when I installed it incorrectly. If we dremmel a little bit of the inner radius away, so that it fits over the shaft properly, would this be OK?

Thanks

 

Loctite not needed, use a split lock washer and you will be fine.

That washer is fine as it is. It is just there to spread load if and when you hit the bump stops.

 

1. I'm not sure if the split lock washer would work as effectively. Loctite won't work at all?

2. The curved washer below the dust guard won't allow the assembly to fully compress though. Ie. the top hat won't fully go down. There's two sections of the shaft (above the damping part) where the spring is:

I. A part where the bumpstop and curved washer are able to slide up and down the primary shaft

- separated by a dust cover rests on top of that primary shaft dividing the primary and secondary parts -

II. The secondary part is where the top hat goes. I really hope that made sense.

 

Try to tighten everything while you are setting the preload.

 

Thanks, that really cleared everything up.

 

That washer goes on top of the top hats and those rubber parts replace the OEM bushings in the top hats.

Review this post.

https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/258...t__p__10215101

 

I mimicked a lot of what I saw in other forms, as well as how the OEM struts were assembled. From bottom to top I had:

Bump stop > curved washer > dust guard/washer > washer > top hat > lock nut