BAHHH I just can't fu*&king win again

[equate975]

So after all the god damn delays with the new suspension for the m3, its fucked up yet AGAIN.

I don't know what the hell went wrong but on the test drive the driver strut made a bad creaking noise like a damn boat.

So I pull it apart thinking some way some how I didn't tighten the mount down hard enough. Well the god damn threads on the strut for the nut are all fucked up now.

I could barely get the nut off, and I tried just using a new nut on re assembly and now its just jammed on. I can't even use the allen key hole to hole the strut from spinning while I undo the nut, it just bends and breaks every allen key I have.

This car is no kidding cursed, for ever 10 min it runs good and you have fun, that equals 40 hours of work you have to do because something breaks.

[equate975]

Oh and to top is off I busted my nice huskey ratchet wrench....

[FJ40]

If it makes you feel any better, I do the same damn thing with my FJ40 ALL of the time. I go through phases of wanting to sell/keep the fuckin pos.

The scary thing is that as of late my want to sell:keep ratio seems to be about 10:1.

Punch a wall.

[equate975]

Well I did get a new husky wrench, yey for life time warranty.

And I did get the nut off, I had to keep tension on it from the spring by looseing up the compressors so the fuckin thing would come off.

Bad news is theres about a 1mm chunk of thread missing.... So weak.

[equate975]

Well I think I figured out what happened, I still have no clue how I did this. But the spring must have not been compressed enough causing the mount not to seat all the way on the strut. So then the nut wasn't down all the way either. At least thats what the threads on the strut look like. Still have no idea how I managed to do that, but I'm awesome like that so I must have.


No wait, WTF? Theres like a 6mm gap between the mount and the nut.... It was definitely seated all the way, but I don't see how this is even supposed to work.

[ak96ss]

Do you have a washer on there?

Air tools make this job so easy...

[PiercedE30]

Air Tools, FTW!!!

[xLibelle]

with light of your correction, i dont understand what the problem is. take a picture

[FredK]

If you ever find yourself feeling homicidal urges, just step back from the automobile. Otherwise you'll get sick of wrenching and start thinking irrationally.

I was almost at that point tonight when I dropped one of those aluminum thumb nuts behind the center console, so I had to pull the shifter gaiter, the shift knob, the rear and front console, just to find it. Not to mention it was like 90 degrees in the garage. But, I got everything back together pretty quickly and the coding plug install was a breeze. Ahhhh.

[equate975]

I destroyed what was left of the strut....

I have been working with air tools, they are nice as hell!

Anyways, I was rethreading the strut with another nut, worked great for a while then I stripped the allen socket at the top.

Then I took a pipe wrench to the spot that the strut mount goes on, not the place it tells you not to put a pipe wrench on lol. But the fuckin nut won't go down enough and I can't keep a grip on it with the pipe wrench.

Yes the washer was on, but the problem is the washer isn't think enough or something, worked just fine on the other side, but this side its waaay off. I need like 2 or 3 washers to fill the gap.

I lent my camera so I can't get pics, but heres an AWESOME paint drawing I made.



Would it be ok if I were to undo the nut on top of the strut on the other side of my car to take a look at how that one looks? I am saying without taking the actual assembly out, I would guess that the weight of the car would hold the spring down to keep everything in place until I put the nut back.

Edit:

Yes the bottom washer was in there too.

[equate975]

If you ever find yourself feeling homicidal urges, just step back from the automobile. Otherwise you'll get sick of wrenching and start thinking irrationally.

I always do, thats me 10 seconds after 1 thing shouldn't work like it should. I can only work on my car for 15 min intervals before getting pissed the fuck off and punching something.

[ak96ss]

Isn't there another washer below the mount?

[equate975]

Isn't there another washer below the mount?

Yeah I thought of that like 2 seconds ago lol, I edited my post. Yes that one was on there too.

[FredK]

There are two washers underneath the strut mount, right? A fat thrust washer and another thinner one that cups the bearings in the strut mount.

[equate975]

There are two washers underneath the strut mount, right? A fat thrust washer and another thinner one that cups the bearings in the strut mount.

I only had one when I took it apart, just a regular big ass washer.