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All, I was going to send a PM to Whitetiger5 but decided to share this with all so someone else may avoid my same mistake. Recently I rebuilt the tranny and the entire front end of the car. I put in KYB AGX adjustable struts. When I was doing this I lost the nut that the came with one of the struts. The one that holds the strut to the strut mount (22ft/lbs). I wanted to get it done so I ordered a 10mm x1.25 pitch set of nylon lock nuts from amazon. I tried to avoid cheap China ones. I installed it and installed the strut. Recently when I was driving the rain it felt like I was not in total control of the steering. The next day I opened the hood and I find the driver side strut has the nut at an angle and the strut moving pretty much where ever it wants. The nut wouldn't tighten or loosen. The threads on the strut are knurled over. The only way I had to use at the moment was using a dremmel type tool to cut off the nut. Of course I did additional damage. Tried rethreading the strut but no luck the knurled over threads were too bad. I am now replacing the shock and will very closely guard the nut that comes with the strut until it is installed. I checked the threading on the other nuts that are in the package and when using tap I found for the size it is supposed to be that several of the nuts work but seem a slightly looser fit than they should be. For a $1 part it is now costing me another $100 and the thrill of aligning the little tab in the damper fork. I am going now to hang my head in shame.
The damping fork align up is made a lot easier Mr. Jon if you orientate the top strut mounting pad while changing out the strut. 1 of the larger studs that will be on 1 end of the bolt/stud line on the mounting pad will need to be lined up with the little tab that goes into the dampner fork ,that mounts into the lower control arm. Once you do this the whole strut assembly will line right up and go into place. When changing out struts you should always use the factory springs and not get the loaded strut packages that have the new strut and springs already together. The new strut springs usually have larger diameter spring oil material that makes up the spring coils. The larger diameter material actually causes the car to ride higher and changes the factory suspension height of the car. This in turn causes the car not to ride as well and will make your suspension pieces wear out quicker. Acura did a lot of research on the suspension height of the car and the factory suspension height should be kept if you want your Acura to ride correctly. No reason to hang your head in shame Jon you sure didn't gin up the crappy replacement nut you received from Amazon. Another gift from over yonder.
When you remove the strut assembly for the repair before you tear it apart check the alignment of which top strut mounting pad stud lines up with the strut benchmark tab. Mark that stud and when assembling the strut package again, just line up stub with the benchmark tab and the whole assembly should fit right in, with no fiddling about. Always best to look at the old strut assembly and see how the top mounting pad is orientated in the vehicle already. That will give you a visual go by that should be easy to duplicate. If the strut assembly is assembled correctly it sure makes it a lot easier to put back in the vehicle.
Got a new strut mounted. The other strut damaged the strut mount and this caused the tire to wear off the inner tread.. Will need to get a couple of new tires now. Took 3 or 4 times to get the tab to line up with the shock fork.
Shock Mount - the mounting hole was worn by the metal shock collar. Caused the shock to push the tire at an angle wearing out the tire inner treads.
So the nut was pulled out of the threads on the strut, which then allowed the collar to move freely with the suspension travel, and it slowly wore away the portion of the mount base?
I'm guessing that the two rubber bushings would have kept the collar concentric with the mount base (and not worn it out) if the supplied nut was used and kept the two under compression?
You are correct that nut moved up the strut shaft till it got jammed at an angle but not enough pressure to hold the strut from moving. It tilted the wheel camber and rode on the inside of the tire. The bushings seemed in ok shape (replaced them anyway) but not compression so the collar rubbed against the mount. Both the collar and mount were worn out on one side.
11-18-2022, 01:48 AM
Ruined New Strut
