fml. i hate this car

[gsxr141]

so i just spent the last 3 hours installing struts and springs on the supra. i got everything new.... springs, struts, mounts, and boot kits.
half way home i hear a rattling sound from the back of the car...... looks like the main nut on the rear struts is loose????? i know i tightened them down.
now i'm at home and i can't get them off or make them any tighter........

any ideas for me at this point???????????????????

 

[mk3sons]

why cant you tighten it?

 

[Mk3*Supra]

Did you tighten them down to the proper torque spec?

and why can't you tighten them now?

 

[fixer88]

Did you install the spacers under the nut

 

[gsxr141]

the rod just spins. there were no spacers. i'm going to take them out and try the old mounts on the new struts tomorrow.

 

[robawelch]

If memory serves me correctly, when I installed mine in my Lexus, the rods spin while the car is suspended, but dont spin when the car is on the ground. try that.

P.s. If you hate the car, someone who will love it may want to buy it from you!

 

[fixer88]

I know on mine when i installed my kyb's i had a spacers that eent under the top shoch nut i remember cause i fogot to install them and i had a banging noise coming feom the rear and found i forgot to install them. Mine were lime a half inch tall.

 

[hvyman]

The strut piston will turn. There is supposed to be a spacer in the rear struts. And the nut is supposed to be tight. They can sometimes come loose.

 

[gsxr141]

there were no spacers with the struts or mounts. i tried tightening them in the driveway with the car on the ground. i'll just have to take it all apart and figure it out after work tomorrow.

 

[Jimbo]

Seeing the hole on the mount is the same shape as the threaded part of the rod.

 

[OfnaRcR4]

Been there. I had to install washers on the top nut and when tightening I got someone hefty to stand on the wheel to stop the rod from spinning.

 

[hvyman]

See. Stock there is a sPacer.

Also if the but is not tight against the mount there is going to be a knocking noise.

 

[djshoester]

Hope that you can get it resolved quickly! It is a shame if you were to hate such a wonderful car just because of this.

 

[mk3sons]

I had the same problem.. went to town on that shit with an impact gun.. it tightened it butt.. I wouldn't recommend that though because, uhh its probably dumb and incorrect and you will break it

 

[destrux]

They only get tightened to a very light torque spec. If you overtighten them at all you'll strip the D shaped keyway out of the shock mount and the rod will just spin. If you left the spacer out, the nut will run out of threads and tighten on the shaft before it clamps the tight against the mount, and if you strip the keyway by overtightening at the same time.... it will not only rattle, but it will be hard to loosen it to put the spacer back in.

What you can do to fix it:

Get a piece of 1/8" thick soft copper or aluminum (hammer a copper pipe flat and bend it into a U shape) and use it to pad the jaws of a set of vice grips, and grab the shock shaft with it down on the shiny part inside the spring so you can hold it still and be able to loosen/tighten the nut.

Next time pay attention to how it comes apart and goes together and use the torque specs and you won't have problems. Service manuals for this car are free on the internet, so there's no excuse for not using one.

 

[gsxr141]

Just so everyone knows...... I did pay attention to how they came apart. I went as far to buy everything new. There were no spacers at all. I just took apart the stock struts, and there were no spacers on them either. I ended up adding a couple washers under the strut bolt and it's all good now. Seems to me the problem was with the aftermarket mounts. Btw, they were made in india. Lol

 

[gsxr141]

hope that you can get it resolved quickly! It is a shame if you were to hate such a wonderful car just because of this.

i was just really frustrated with the car. I had just spent all day at work, working on cars and i stayed after to do this.
It just seems like every time i try to fix something on it, there's other problems.

 

[Another MkIII]

i was just really frustrated with the car. I had just spent all day at work, working on cars and i stayed after to do this.
It just seems like I own a Supra.

Fixed.
-AM3

 

[destrux]

Sorry, I didn't mean to be a dick. We just get a fair number of idiots that roll in here for a few weeks, mess their car up by not taking any advice, then bitch about it and sell it at a huge loss and forever proclaim that MKIII Supras are garbage. One guy even made a blog about it.

Glad you fixed it though, they are good cars once you get them back into shape.

I work on a lot of older cars at work, and it seems 90% of restoration parts for oddball cars are made in either India or China... and the fact that the Chinese stuff is the "good" stuff really tells you something about how bad the parts from India are. I got a set of motor mounts once for a Ford GPW (a military jeep) from a company called Omix-Ada and the rubber was so cheap I could rip chunks of it off with my fingers. I tore it up and mailed it back to them with a fun and interesting note.

 

[Typhoon]

Seriously. Just grab the shaft up high with a pair of multigrips or vise grips and tighten BEFORE you loosen off the spring compressor. The shocks never use the last few inches of travel so it's perfectly safe.
Rattle guns are also great for this, just set them on the lightest torque setting and whiz the nuts on. These are shocks, not Macpherson or Chapman struts, the nut merely holds the strut in an upright position, no real side loads to worry about.