Rebuilding rear struts.

[steve lyle]

Richard,

Well, thanks for trying, anyway.

I still don't get it. I don't see how the damper applies any force at all to the top platform - the damper shaft is bolted to the lotocone - the only force on the top platform is from the spring, unless the suspension bottoms out, in which case the bump stop is also putting a vertical load on the platform. But it has nowhere to go, since it's nesting in the lotocone.

I hear you on the challenge of torquing up the top strut nut. I asked Ken Gray at DBE about that, his response was basically - do the best you can, he's never heard of a case of the nut backing off. Really, the purpose of the nut is to keep the damper shaft from falling out of the lotocone. As long as there's enough torque on the nut to do that, we should be good. It is kind of interesting that the Koni's had no cotter pin hole in the strut shaft. Maybe Koni knows something we don't.

Regards,
Steve

[512BB]

People posting on this thread should include pictures about the parts they are enquiring about to help explain their situation. I sometimes have difficulty understanding what part folk are asking about and the problem they are encountering.

You do not have to worry about what torque to do the top nut up to if you are using a castellated nut. You just do it up until you can get a split pin through the nut, but I am aware that some later supplied damper inserts come with nylock nuts, so they could be problematic when trying to tighten them.

Leslie

[steve lyle]

People posting on this thread should include pictures about the parts they are enquiring about to help explain their situation. I sometimes have difficulty understanding what part folk are asking about and the problem they are encountering.

You do not have to worry about what torque to do the top nut up to if you are using a castellated nut. You just do it up until you can get a split pin through the nut, but I am aware that some later supplied damper inserts come with nylock nuts, so they could be problematic when trying to tighten them.

Leslie

My Koni's didn't come with nyhlock or split pins/castellalted nuts. The struts are adjustable, and the adjustment mechanism is accessed through the top of the damper shaft, so no room for a split pin. And the nuts are 'stepped' - the step fitting down into the lotocone, so it would be a pretty fancy nylock, if that type even exists. (If they do, point me to them, and I'll let DBE know as well - it's not too late for me to change the nuts out).

[Billelan]

Hi.
I’ve just fitted my adjustable SPAX inserts. These definitely have a stepped Nyloc type nut.
Bill

[RichardHawkins]

Steve,

On my car the damper shaft does not bear directly on the Lotacone. The damper shaft shoulder bears on the spring top plate before passing through the Lotacone to the top nut. With my top plate and Lotacone there is a void between the two. I hope this explains what I have done and why.

Richard Hawkins

[cadwell]

Steve
I see that no one replied to your queries.
You are correct of course, that the damper rod does not move up and down.
However, when the spring compresses and the damper tube moves up the damper rod is pushed further into the damper tube. The force to do this is restrained by the damper rod mounting on the top spring plate.
Simply, if the damper rod was not attached to the top spring plate, when the spring compressed, the damper rod would shoot up through the parcel shelf!

Peter

[GLB]

I have just read this thread and thought I would add my experience. The flat on the upper damper rod and the D shape on the upper spring perch keeps the rod from rotating when you draw up the nut. In my case the rod rotating kept me from removing the top nut. I had to remove the entire assembly by unbolting the Lotocone from the chassis, apply the spring compressor then grip the shaft with vice grips to remove the nut and separate the lotocone from the spring perch. The vice grips ruined the damper but I was removing it because it was bad. A Koni unit that was locked up solid. After one bounce there was no suspension movement at all. I welded up one side of the spring perch and carefully reformed the D shape to hold the upper shaft of the new strut. I found that with the car on the ground and the spring compressed by the weight of the car you can remove the strut nut and then raise the car and release the spring. I usually put it back together as a unit compressing the spring outside the car as there is no room to hold my spring compressor in place with the body around it. A little tough to bolt the Lotocone in place as an assembly but doable in my experience. I used to compress the spring and hold it compressed with multiple turns of safety wire, bolt everything up and then carefully snip the safety wire after it was in place on the car. A little exciting and now I like assembling the strut outside as described above. Gary