Alright well I'm doing my front shocks and I have the old strut cartridge out and I'm putting the new one in. The shock came with 4 parts aside from the cartridge itself, one is the strut lockdown nut, and one is the shock tower nut. The other two are metal washers and I'm unsure were they go. My guess would be between the strut body and the lockdown nut, but I really don't know. No instructions came with them.

 

Yes, the washers are used above the insert body before the retainer nut goes on.

-billy

 

Ok so use both of them?

 

No. Use one (or none, or hell, both) if you're able to screw down the retaining nut all the way without it impinging on the top of the strut cartridge. The 'washers' are there to ensure that the top of the strut is fully retained under pressure from the threaded lock-down nut.

Also, don't forget to fill the strut body with oil before you put the cartridge in. You can do this afterward, as well which may be a bit cleaner, but it's important. The oil allows for heat transfer between the cartridge and strut body to the atmosphere. Without the oil bath around the cartridge, it will retain too much heat under use and blow out.

I've been running Tokico Blues since 1986 or so, and they're excellent struts/shocks for the price, if you take care of them (bump stops, quality springs, and oil in the front strut body).

Good luck,

 

Great info, thanks. I put anti-freeze in them as I read it works well for that purpose. I'm using racing beat springs.

 

I've never heard of anybody using antifreeze for the oil bath, but I suppose it would work. Oil won't evaporate as quickly as antifreeze will, however, so you might want to recheck that from time to time. There are no O-rings or anything to keep the bath from venting to atmosphere, so over time, your bath level is going to go down.

Also, be sure to torque the retaining nut to the proper setting. As stated, the worst thing you can have happen is that the cartridge is able to hop up and down in the strut housing and bash itself to death.

 

How on earth would I torque that accurately?

 

Anyone care to shed some light on how to torque down the strut lockdown nut properly?

 

I was baffled by that one too. I've never seen a torque wrench that can slide down over the strut shaft. Perhaps you just need to make sure they are good and tight.

 

Yep, in the Mazda FSM, they use a really deep socket. Torque is 58-108 ft-lb, so I guess "really tight".

 

A deep 1.5'' socket. I'll keep that in mind...

 

It's called a 'crows-foot', and the torque specifications provided are correct. The point of torquing it down is to ensure that there is no gap between the bottom of the lock nut and the top of the strut cartridge, as any looseness here will result in poor caster/camber alignment and eventual shock destruction - possibly dangerous, if the strut were to disintegrate at speed.

So, yes, it's important. And 108ft-lbs is usually tighter than most people torque their lug nuts on their wheels, if that puts it into perspective...

 

I'm going to take it somewhere and have them do it. I think it can survive a few miles.

 

You can probably do it yourself (with the right tools), I just wanted to emphasize that it's not something you want to screw down finger-tight and call it good.

Get a large set of vice-grips, or a channel-lock wrench with long handles and twist on that sucker until your hands hurt - that should be plenty, and no way higher than 108 ft-lbs, unless you're built like Ahhnold.

Not worth paying someone else to do it, just be sure you get it tightened down thoroughly.

 

Well I noticed that a pipe wrench just tears it up

 

Just crank it down, check for slop, and zoom zoom baby!!! If you crank it down, and find you still have slop and can feel the cartridge moving inside the housing, then add a washer and try it again. No rocket surgery involved in this one.

 

It was pretty solid with the 1 washer, so I think it will be ok.