Hello all,
After recently renewing the upper shock bushings to remedy a squeak, which it did not help, I heard a rattling sound coming from the front end. To my dismay I discovered the nut for the shock was loose, any suggestions on how to proceed? I'm concerned that if I lift the front end of the vehicle that spring is going to do some crazy things. Is the vehicle even safely drivable in this condition?

 

Is there thread damage?(can't get a good look at the nut) If not simply screw the nut back on, no need to lift the car.
edit. The top of the rod thread appears to be missing since the plug terminals are so visible, l assume that is still in nut. Still more than enough to hold the Shock, may need new nut.

 

Sorry I was a bit vague. The threaded part of the rod sheared off in the nut. So no way to really attach a new nut.

 

Wow that is a problem I have never seen before. Sucks that it is one of the expensive XKR shocks too.

I would not drive it unless it was just slowly from the driveway into the garage. That unsecured shock shaft could damage the new mount you just installed.

You are wise to be wary of the spring.

I would try raising the wheel using a floor jack under the lower control arms so that you can keep pressure on the spring. Remove the wheel then add a couple of those loaner spring compressors to the spring so you have things under control. Once the spring is controlled you should be able to support the car from the normal body rib location and lower the floor jack safely to continue with normal R&R. You will probably have to disconnect the upper control arm to get the assembly out due to the spring compressors taking additional space.

Be careful and it should go okay. Your wallet will seem a bit lighter after you are done though.

 

That is what I was afraid of. May just convert the car over to standard shocks. Was hoping to not have to deal with that myself. I'm very weary of the springs. I tried to put the coil in whilst compressed on the other side because I couldn't compress the spring enough to get the top hat on, not enough room for the compressor tools. Would it make sense to lift the car up by the front crossmember and then control arm at the same time, then slowly lower the jack under the control arm to reduce pressure on the spring? Never really dome much suspension work.

 

I don't know if there is enough travel in the control arms to let all fall apart like the back shocks will do. Hopefully someone else will know.

When I was first working with my front suspension I was able to get the spring compressors onto the spring while it was still on the car. It may depend on the style of compressor. Mine were pretty slender.

 

Maybe i read wrong but you said you couldn't compress the front spring enough?

Bcrary3 you didn't mention what tool you used to compress spring. Do you have an air compressor and impact wrench? Did you do this with just a wrench?

Jumping ahead:if you have compressor you should have been able to compress the spring all the way. It's a PITA but it'll get done. Mind if I we offer to help you nail the sequence down?

if you didn't use an air compressor, wow, you need to get hold of one . Home depot rents them , get the biggest (gallons of air) that you can. I once used a 2 gallon compressor, had to wait for it to catch up several times per shock.

just trying to help. I can't figure put why we were discussing putting a good shock back on seem compressed. Thes are front shocks right?

john

 

Didn't have my air compressor at the time I did it. Just the impact gun. Was just too tight to turn the compressor tool by hand. Now I've got the air compressor. I've got two sets of 'suicide bars'. Exactly the same as what is rented out by orilley. A bit on the large side. These are the front. There is nothing wrong with the functionality or the shocks to my knowledge. Other than the nut on one side sheared off and is now only held in place by the weight of the car.

 

I had to do this on my XKR. First, you can jack it up and let the suspension droop. The spring and shock aren't going anywhere. The shock will disengage from the bushing, but that isn't a problem.

Unbolt and slide the upper a-arm out of the way, and then get as much of a grip on the coil as you can with your spring compressors. It will end up being a 8 and 4, positioning,rather than the ideal 12 and 6.

Take the tension off the spring and then unbolt the shock from the lower arm. I was then able to slide the shock off of the lower arm and extract from the coil. The coil could then be removed.

Take a deep breath and decompress the coil! It's slightly terrifying having the spring so unevenly compressed.

 

Use a onboard spring compressor to holt the spring and remve the whole thing . No new shock needed, just a new nut after you unscrew the broken piece off the shaft

 

I am curious how the new nut will fasten if there are no threads showing for it to attach to. Are there more threads that can be exposed below?

 

It does not appear so, there are several threads below it looks like, but they will not come up far enough to attach a new nut to.

I've decided to just replace the shock, $259.09 from SNG Barratt for a Bilstein branded shock. I'm not sure why they use a two part rod like that, but oh well.
Just waiting for the new shock to arrive.

 

I have tried to get a good look via your pics but not had much luck. The nut in hand pic shows only short piece of rod, l think maybe the rod has been pulled back through top mount by spring tension and maybe compressing spring in place will expose the remaining thread.