Help needed asap! - Suspension problem

[karldavies]

- Rear shock problem -

I have just fitted some TEIN lowering springs to the rear of my car. I tightened the 3 nuts at the top of the suspension and then with an air gun tightened up the centre nut on the shock absorber.
I have just driven the car and there is a loud knocking from the rear.
On investigation I have noticed that the passenger side rear suspension is tight and there is no free play on the large nut, but on the drivers side the nut is further down with more threads showing and when you press down on the rear of the car you can see that the nut lifts up and down making the knocking sound.
Both shock absorbers are standard and the pasenger side is fine.

Has anyone got any ideas?
Cheers

[JohnnyC]

Springs aligned correctly on the shock?

You tightened the centre nut with the car on the ground?

[Rosssco]

I would check that when you put the top mount onto the damper piston, that the flat edges at the top of the piston (just below the thread IIRC) are properly located in the flat edges on the underside hole where the thread goes through.

If you haven'y, you will be attempting to tighten the nut, but spinning the piston rather than tightening the nut down... The locating arrangement at the top is to prevent this.

I usually locate everthing first (as Johnny said), ensuring that the spring is seated properly in the lower spring cup (ensure the spring is not upside down ) and that the top mount is properly located onto the top of the damper. It can be a bit of a fiddle to do sometimes. It tighten the top nut up by hand, or with light pressure, install it on the car, then once lowered back onto its wheels, you shoul dbe able to torque up the nut correctly... I might have gone off at a tangent there, but it sounds like that could be you're problemo..

Ross

[karldavies]

excellent lads thanks for the quick response.i'll check all those things tomorrow

[karldavies]

ok its worse than i thought...after getting the wheel off it looked like the spring was seated fine in the cup.the bolt was all aligned properly.i then decided to take the spring off and check the shock.i'm pretty certain its nackered.i can push the damper rod in and out of the shock quite easily with my hands.when i push down on it the thing stays down.surely it would come back up again. Do i need a new shock? If so how much would i be looking at? Are there any differences between rev1,2,3's turbo's and na's. Thanks again guys, this forum is a life saves at times

[C50]

its knackered if the piston rod doesn't come back out.

Turbo's have harder shocks than NA.

Rev1's have rebuildable struts so if you have them you can get away with inserts which are slightly cheaper.

[karldavies]

where would i need to look to buy an insert then? What sort of price too ? Thanks again

[JohnnyC]

Camskill sell KYB inserts.
They're around £135 a pair. Which is around the same price as the full unit from Toyota - although I guess these would be softer than turbo shocks.

[C50]

if that's the case probably better and easier just to buy a full unit.

going rebuildable and inserts, you'll need a big a$$ vice and spanner, you might wanna tidy up the shock casings which involves sandblasting and painting

when you do fit new shocks, don't forget to use shock boots to stop dirt knackering them up

[karldavies]

mmm.this is sounding costly.my only problem here is time. I've got a track day at cadwell on fri :s i really do need to get a move on! Also i'm planning on swapping all the standard shocks for bc coilovers in the summer so it seems a waste getting a new standard shock from toyota and spending a £100 odd quid.. . Or even the rebuild kits for that matter. i wonder if it will be cheaper buying a working 2nd hand one from someone who's breaking a tubby.it really only needs to be sorted for cadwell and then it's off the road for the winter to get more stuff done. Just have to make sure i can get hold of one in time.god this is stressfull !

[Bagaz]

If it helps, I have a good kyb shock insert in my garage. And by good i mean it's not leaking and still takes considerable force to compress.

[C50]

/\ can't really change just one though

[Bagaz]

True, but thought i'd offer a cheap and fast solution anyway. Which is what is required.