Hi all, I have found a problem that some may have in the installing of my mounts.
Nothing in the materials (so far) but Jon89 and I a couple of weeks ago had a Murphy's Day. My strut machine broke the weld on the top plate and shot the air gun over our heads, the shock went flying across the concrete. The spring was chained to the machine, so other than screaming like a couple of little girls, all was OK. That one.
So we used the machine with it's original equipment to just compress the spring and hook up the spring clamps to hold it in place while we installed the shock. Those that have done this job know the bear these springs are to get as short as necessary. Well, we got near the 11 inches you need and the seal blew on the jack. Murphy was having a great day.
Back to plan "C", I have always used my 20 ton press for this job and as the Vevor machine was not working. The press was doing a great job and getting the shock stud in the washer in the mount bell requires you to push a bit on the shaft to center it, then a few more jacks and you put the nut on a few threads by hand then hit it with a air gun and it sends it tight, (that being Plan "D"). I could not get the nut started, so we take it all apart, pull the shock and the nut from the other shock and it goes right on. Bad threads on the original nut, rethread and it just rolls on, damn you Murphy. This was taking a lot of time and it was well into the 90's. Got the whole thing compressed again and nut went on as it should, hit with air, it's a 3/8 air gun adjusted to have less than 40 ft lbs. It did it's thing and this is where the issue showed up for us and we think others could have this problem.
After all was back together we took it for a Murphy drive. We had a crinkle rattle that sounded like it was in the middle of the dash. Checked all nuts were tight in the below area where most things were taken apart and nothing. Sway bar might have had a 1/16 inch play, so we will watch that in the future. Murphy won this one at that time, we were completely soaked and Jon still had a 2 hour trip home. He left and I was so disappointed.
Thinking it over, that top nut was all I could think of and got Jon to check it. We had 2 threads down on one and 4 down on the other. The stud was not tight to the inner washer of the bell, it did not show up until the tires were on a rough part of the road when several bumps in a row would happen.
What was happening and do apologize for the ones this could have happened too, but the hole in the top of the mount will only allow a thin wall socket be it 17MM or 9/16 inch, the only two sizes I know. The socket I was using was a snog fit on the outer wall and when touching the rubber was unable to turn and gave the indication all was tight.
If you have the black top bushing in the mounts I sent out, please check the thread count on the shock shaft. It should be 5 on most. It's not something that most of us would have a problem with but if I had a problem, then this is something a very experienced mechanic could miss.
I do know one member had a problem and this could have been it. Baxtor and I have made the adjustments to give more clearance, but for now, it's just a matter of using a thin wall socket and torqueing the nut to spec's, if you check and see it's not down all the way.
Yes, it solved the chinking problem right away and we beat the rain yesterday morning by well over 10 minutes. Take that Murphy.
Had a great breakfast , Western Omelet and hash browns and home made biscuit. They were so good, Jon had another, it was raining so we were stuck. That's the story and I'm sticking to it.
Check this out on your mounts if you got them from me or anyone. Once mounted the shaft will generally hold to a torque of 40 ft lbs, if not, reach up and pry the bump stop down at the top or right below the bell area and hold with a set of vise grips. That area will never be near the seals of the shock. Be sure to put the bump stop back in place. If you all remember when Gian did the first test for this system, he had this problem, but don't think his was bushing related.
Thanks for your time, Wayne

 

As Wayne said, once the top shock nut is tightened down properly, you should be able to count 4 or 5 shock stud threads above the nut. We did not get the drivers-side nut tight enough when we installed Wayne's custom-designed shock mounts a couple of weeks ago and the car had the annoying behind-the-dash rattle over semi-rough roads as a result. So we cranked that nut down yesterday morning to match the nut on the passenger-side shock stud and presto, no more rattle. You need a really skinny 17mm socket to fit down on the nut all the way. And yes, our celebratory omelet breakfast afterwards was indeed fantastic. You local guys should have joined us....