When installing the oem tophat onto the spring/shock, when I attempt to tighten down the nut that fastens the tophat onto the shock piston shaft, the nut and shaft spin together not allowing the nut to thread down. Am I missing soomething obvious in this step?

 

its a common problem with coilovers. most people say to just hit it with an air gun and be done. if you try to do it slow, it'll just rotate the shaft like you're experiencing.

 

Thank you

 

Be careful with an impact. Some will say it might damage the seals or shock internals. My ASTs were like this but at the very top I noticed the upper pin actually had two flat spots. I grabbed a regular adjustable wrench to hold that still while tightening the upper nut. I got it plenty tight enough this way.

Did you get some V3s Sparrow?

 

Just get it as tight as possible before it starts spinning. Just make sure the second nut(the lock nut) is nice and tight.

 

What is this lock nut you speak of? The oem nut is a nylon nut. I don't remember removing a lock nut from the oem suspension.

 

Oh, according to your PM, I figured you were installing V3s. V3s get two thin nuts.

 

I do have the v3s but assumed those two thin nuts were just to hold the cardboard squares on top of the coilovers in place during shipping lol. Could've sworn the direction says to reuse the oem nut hmmmm. I feel real dumb right about now.

 

I think the OEM nut is too tall for the KWs.