Bilstein sport shock installation-shaft spinning when tightening lock nut

[89PS911]

Hi All,

Installing Bilstein sports on my 1989 911 3.2. Rear shock is bolted to the control arm. When I attempt to tighten the lock nut at the top of the shock, once the nut reaches the blue plastic locking ring the nut begins to spin the shaft and will advance no further. There is not enough thread under the nut to grab the shaft and tighten the nut through the plastic lock. In any case, I am worried about damaging threads by grabbing them. I have tried this both with the full weight of the car on that shock with wheel installed and up on my scissor lift with the shock fully compressed using my floor jack under the control arm; so maximum thread exposed at the top in both cases.

This can't be this difficult by design. Please advise.

Thank you,
Jonathan

[DRACO A5OG]

There should be a space for an allen wrench on top to hold in place. I just installed mine on my 3.2

Re-checked the old ones, the fronts do not have one but the rears definitely do.

[Bill Verburg]

Originally Posted by 89PS911

Hi All,

Installing Bilstein sports on my 1989 911 3.2. Rear shock is bolted to the control arm. When I attempt to tighten the lock nut at the top of the shock, once the nut reaches the blue plastic locking ring the nut begins to spin the shaft and will advance no further. There is not enough thread under the nut to grab the shaft and tighten the nut through the plastic lock. In any case, I am worried about damaging threads by grabbing them. I have tried this both with the full weight of the car on that shock with wheel installed and up on my scissor lift with the shock fully compressed using my floor jack under the control arm; so maximum thread exposed at the top in both cases.

This can't be this difficult by design. Please advise.

Thank you,
Jonathan

I use a pass through socket on the nut and an hex wrench on the rod

[cabmandone]

IDK if it's right to do or not but I just used an impact and zipped them on. I believe the torque spec for the nut is 84 ft lbs. I have different settings on my impact so I set it on 2 and put the nut on.

[89PS911]

Thanks all. Indeed, there is a 5mm Allen wrench hole recessed in the head of the shaft. I did not see that... Rear shocks are in!

Jonathan

[DRACO A5OG]

:d

[universeman]

I spun mine for the better part of 30 minutes before I noticed that wrench hole :-/

Glad you got 'em done? How's the ride now?

If you're doing the front shocks next you need a tool for the big washer, or you can use vice grips to hold it and a long breaker bar on your ratchet, which is what I did...

[cabmandone]

Glad you got them in! I misread and thought you were working on fronts. The rears on my car had a flat spot that you can grab with a vise grip. Sorry for the bad info.

[89PS911]

No problem cabmando. I am moving to the fronts just as soon as I install my new brake pads .

I will let everyone know how the ride is in the next week or so. My winter maintenance projects this year have covered:

New oxygen, temperature head, tdc reference, and speed sensors.
New DME relay.
New shocks all around.
New brake pads all around.
New J tube from the oil tank to the engine.
Oil and filter change.

I cannot wait to get back on the road. Here in the DC area we have now had enough post-winter rain that the salt has been washed away.

Thanks again,
Jonathan

[DRACO A5OG]

Take it easy, the new shocks will take some time to get use to. May have to re-learn to corner. But once you are use to it, it will be a joy