look under the mount for the top nut and see if there is a nut or anything welded onto the top of the shock. it would be under the lowest bushing. my stock ranchos have that and i think most oem shocks do.

the bilsteins for the rear had a 6mm allenwrench fitting on the top of the shock so you could put an allen wrench in it to keep the bolt from turning.

as for the torque on the top nut, i dont remember. its not that much. i wish jbrew would stop taking the picture down after everytime he posts it.

 

I only do that when I feel it isn't appreciated. Sorry, but you can find the info yourself - I did.

 

Fronts are done. Found the nut welded to the shock. I don't know how you can even tighten them past the wax ring in the lock washer. As soon as the wax ring made contact, the shock started spinning with it. I just left it there. So there is no way they are too tight.

Gonna do the back tomorrow. For some reason, I don't have a 18mm deep socket. Had to use a cresent wrench and take a couple turns on the fronts before my normal sockets could reach the nut.

 

Here is the picture showing how much to tighten just incase someone else was wondering.



I saved the pic the second time he posted it.

 

Dck

 

lol i had too i just forgot.

 

resurrecting this thread. i put the fronts on today. damn lower bolt was rusted in. needed a BFH and a punch to get them out. i didnt want to tighten the top nut too much so i snapped a couple pics to see what you guys thought.

drivers side


passenger side


i personally think the drivers side needs to be tightened some
the pictures were taken with the tires on and sitting on level ground.

bonus:
the shocks that came off the front


and then just for fun, a pic of the rear shock

 

Mine aren't even close to that tight. You can't see any threads on mine. When I tightening the nut down, once I got to a certain spot, the shock shaft was spinning with it. Didn't see anywhere to throw a wrench to stop it, so I just figured that was far enough. On my back ones, you can't even see the top of the shock through the nut. Seems like once I got to the wax ring, that was as tight as they would go.
How did you gets yours down so far?

 

i held the top of the stud with a pair of slip joint pliers and tightened the nut with an open end wrench.

for the backs, there is a slot in the top of the stud for a 6mm allen wrench to keep it from turning while you tighten it.

 

I little ignition wrench fits the top as well. I forget what size it was? It was smaller than a 1/4" tho.

That looks good scotyg - Suppose to tighten just enough on the Bilstein bushings for them to expand and fill the void (around the hole) in the top tower thruway. Looks like you have about perfect to me

Was that pic taken with all the weight on it? If it's to tight or not right, you'll notice both bushings begin to deform. Just keep an eye on it for awhile, but yea - looks good from here.

BTW - I like those old bushings on the your old set. That's the type of bushings that came on my new ones. IMO , much better bushing than the ones Bilstein ships with their shocks. Maybe you'll have better luck w/em. Hope so.

 

Wax rings are for Toilets lol. I know what mean, just given yuh a hard time lol. Their actually nylon tho.

 

those pics were taking how it sits on the road with the tires on. i will keep an eye on them.

felt good on the ride home. much better then my 7 year old ranchos that have 73k miles on them.