Shortened Housing Issue: HELP

[Gertech]

I would cut again and start over.
I think I have come up with a pretty foolproof method for shortening struts.
Go to harbor freight and buy a tubing expander ( about 15 bucks ) I think it's the medium sized one. Take your cut strut tubes and grind a nice bevel on the cut edge where they will mate together. Put the tubing expander into both tubes and tighten. The expander will hold both parts of the tube aligned perfectly. You will want a gap between the two tubes of 1/16" to 3/32", so the weld will have good penetration. You may want to coat the tubing expander with a SMALL amount of motor oil to keep the tack welds from sticking to it. Next, working in a criss- cross pattern, make about 10 SMALL tack welds around the tube. Remove the tubing expander and finish welding with a TIG welder. I cannot recommend using a MIG welder as I have not used one for this job but I really think the chance of warping them is much greater. If you REALLY want to play it safe, take a die grinder and grind a little "valley" about a 1/4" wide by 1/4" deep around the circumference of the tubing expander. Then line up the area you are about to weld over the "valley" and tighten. Now you are free to weld all the way around without fear of warping your housings or welding them to the expander. I have used this simple jig several times now with stellar results..

Awesome idea using the tubing expander! I even have one of these but didn't think about using it in that way...putting that in the memory bank!

[nsxguy7]

I would cut again and start over.
I think I have come up with a pretty foolproof method for shortening struts.
Go to harbor freight and buy a tubing expander ( about 15 bucks ) I think it's the medium sized one. Take your cut strut tubes and grind a nice bevel on the cut edge where they will mate together. Put the tubing expander into both tubes and tighten. The expander will hold both parts of the tube aligned perfectly. You will want a gap between the two tubes of 1/16" to 3/32", so the weld will have good penetration. You may want to coat the tubing expander with a SMALL amount of motor oil to keep the tack welds from sticking to it. Next, working in a criss- cross pattern, make about 10 SMALL tack welds around the tube. Remove the tubing expander and finish welding with a TIG welder. I cannot recommend using a MIG welder as I have not used one for this job but I really think the chance of warping them is much greater. If you REALLY want to play it safe, take a die grinder and grind a little "valley" about a 1/4" wide by 1/4" deep around the circumference of the tubing expander. Then line up the area you are about to weld over the "valley" and tighten. Now you are free to weld all the way around without fear of warping your housings or welding them to the expander. I have used this simple jig several times now with stellar results..

[bigredguy]

all of the inside of the housing is grinded flat. I made sure I did that. It has to be the weld that is slightly off. Tomorrow when I get back to the garage I will reassess the problem as I only was there for a little bit and the metal was all cold from negative degree days. Tomorrow I will be throwing the heat on in the garage and getting to work.

[CubbyChowder]

just a thought. is there a high spot in the weld that is pushing the strut insert off centre? a little grinding could help

That is definitely worth checking out as well, take the shock out and look down in there and make sure you don't have any weld bead sticking out into the inner part of the housing. If you do, take a file and grind her flat

[dsm2002]

just a thought. is there a high spot in the weld that is pushing the strut insert off centre? a little grinding could help

[CubbyChowder]

Not that it's going to help you much now, but I used a big pipe cutter to cut my housings. Makes a much cleaner and perfectly square cut, unlike other methods like saws-all or cut off wheels. If you end up getting other housings to straighten it out, try this method. Clamping pieces of angle iron to the strut with c-clamps will help you get it straight when you go to weld it back together.

Those are both very good alternative methods to the ones I used in my tutorial video, probably even better actually.

Hope you get it figured out man! I will have a set of original strut housings for sale here within the next few days if you end up needing to start over.

[bigredguy]

I will be getting my top hats today, and the rest of the parts I need for the car tomorrow, and it is also supposed to warm up, so I plan on trying again then. I will try to thread it on, but if it wont thread on would boring out the gland nut ever so slightly so that I can screw it into place be a bad idea? Shock is an iX bilstein HD

[kronus]

I know because the first set I did were like that, but juust close enough to work :(

[bigredguy]

yes kronus knows exactly what I mean. They were welded slightly not straight, so when the bilstein gland nut is on the shock it sits very slightly to one side of where it has to be threaded in, hence why it will not thread in well.

[kronus]

if it's very close to straight and your cut is pretty close to the top, it's possible for the insert to still go in, but the upper portion (which is wider than the insert, because it needs room for the gland nut to thread in) can be off the centerline.

[AndrewBird]

he means the strut didn't get welded back together straight when it got sectioned.

I don't think that is what he is saying based on this post:

thanks for the help so far. Using a junk shock probably would have greatly helped before i did it, but i did use magnets to secure it in place and keep it straight.

as far as cutting goes, I used a horizontal bandsaw to cut it, so the cuts are straight and thats not the issue.

and I have made a spacer, but it does fit and the shock isnt protruding too much.

And I highly doubt a picture would help. everything looks completely straight, and the shock slides in without any issues, but the only bit that is noticeable is when the shock is in and the gland nut is about to be threaded in you can see it is very slightly off center.

Any suggestions as to how to correct it without rewelding?

If they weren't welded straight, the strut wouldn't fit inside the tube. It would bind at the weld joint.

[kronus]

he means the strut didn't get welded back together straight when it got sectioned.

[AndrewBird]

Just to clarify, what you mean by off center is when threaded in, the center hole in the gland nut is not in the center in relation to the strut tube? Unless the nut was made incorrectly, this can't happen. Or did you mean something else?

[bigredguy]

thanks alot. Glad Im not the only one whose had the problem. Like I said its cold as shit and I didnt turn the heat on in the garage yesterday because I didnt intend on doing work, so I only tried for 20 minutes or so. Ill definitely try that again, and if not bore out the gland nut a bit so its not as snug.

[dsm2002]

My shortened struts were the same. I could not engage the thread as well. I took them to a mate with large bear-like hands, stuck them in a vice and I held the struts firm with my office-worker girlie-like hands while he pushed down on the gland nut and screwed it in at the same time. He rotated the gland nut backwards a short while first until he felt the thread click over so he felt where the thread engage. He has a deft firm touch. Best of luck