Struggling to tighten rear 5100

[jeredcollins]

Lift has been a breeze up to this point. I have a 17mm socket wrench trying to torque down nut but the shaft spins under the dust boot. How are you guys getting locking the shaft (under dust boot) so you can torque down the nut on the top? Haven't seen any issues with anyone else

 

[jremus]

don't the Bilsteins have a hex on the top so you can use an allen wrench to hold it while tightening with an open ended wrench? I thought I remembered them having that..

 

[Drew76]

Just did this recently, I believe in the center of the 17mm nut there is a spot for an allen key, you stop the shaft from turning with the allen key while using the 17mm wrench - I use a ratcheting flex head wrench to tighten, you cant really get a torque wrench in up there i just went by feel and to how it was when i took the old ones off.....

 

[Wedgy]

These are the ticket;
5 Pc Metric Flex-Head Combination Ratcheting Wrench Set
And you need to hold the shaft with an allen wrench in the end

 

[TheDurk]

Here is how it works on Bilstein 4600. It's easy, just drop the frame (j/k).

 

[jeredcollins]

Well got everything buttoned up. Not super confident that I got the top nut tight enough. Spent close to 4 hours today working on that one task.

Everyone talks about how hard the shocks are to get off but it took me less than 5 minutes to do that. Ive never head of anyone every struggling get new shocks on though. Seems odd since you need both hands in an area where you can barely fit one hand. You get about 5-10* of torque movement and you probably need to turn the but at least 40-75 times to get the bushings tight.

How did speedy just turn the outside shock shell to tighten his up?

 

[jeredcollins]

These are the ticket;
5 Pc Metric Flex-Head Combination Ratcheting Wrench Set
And you need to hold the shaft with an allen wrench in the end

Good advice. This is what I ended up using. No other way of doing this job without both tools you described.

 

[mtbtim]

Well got everything buttoned up. Not super confident that I got the top nut tight enough. Spent close to 4 hours today working on that one task.

Everyone talks about how hard the shocks are to get off but it took me less than 5 minutes to do that. Ive never head of anyone every struggling get new shocks on though. Seems odd since you need both hands in an area where you can barely fit one hand. You get about 5-10* of torque movement and you probably need to turn the but at least 40-75 times to get the bushings tight.

How did speedy just turn the outside shock shell to tighten his up?

You get a 5mm allen wrench onto the spindle and turn the nut with a flex head box end wrench. You turn the nut and get the allen wrench wedged up against the frame. The allen wrench will then hold the shock spindle steady while you use your ratcheting box end wrench. Without a ratcheting wrench, this job is a nightmare as you just realized.

 

[Flemster]

You can also grab the shaft with vice grips, I used one of those rubber jar opening things in-between the vice grips and the shaft so that I didn't damage it. Worked great.

 

[Jidaran]

I just did this a couple of weeks ago. For whatever reason, I found it easier to open end wrench than the flex head. The flex kept popping off the nut. The open end wrench was slow going, but once I got a feel for it and got into a rhythm, it wasn't bad at all. Sort of meditative actually

 

[repo]

Well got everything buttoned up. Not super confident that I got the top nut tight enough. Spent close to 4 hours today working on that one task.

Everyone talks about how hard the shocks are to get off but it took me less than 5 minutes to do that. Ive never head of anyone every struggling get new shocks on though. Seems odd since you need both hands in an area where you can barely fit one hand. You get about 5-10* of torque movement and you probably need to turn the but at least 40-75 times to get the bushings tight.

How did speedy just turn the outside shock shell to tighten his up?

It's easy if you have one of those flexhead gearwrenches. I hope you slathered the threads in anti-seize and put a brake bleeder cap or something over the hex wrench hole because they are a MFer to get back off, the mount is perfectly designed to fill up with dirt, the drain hole gets clogged with pebbles and it's extremely awkward to keep it clean. I've always had to resort to destructive means to remove the old ones.

 

[repo]

You get a 5mm allen wrench onto the spindle and turn the nut with a flex head box end wrench. You turn the nut and get the allen wrench wedged up against the frame. The allen wrench will then hold the shock spindle steady while you use your ratcheting box end wrench. Without a ratcheting wrench, this job is a nightmare as you just realized.

You can also stick a bolt or something up through that unused welded nut hole that is on the back of mount and use that to keep the allen wrench in place.

 

[phattyduck]

I found an offset box-end wrench to work the best. I used a ratchet for the allen key. You can use either/both to tighten/loosen.

(pictures from removal, but install is the same)

Oh, and drop that spare tire so you have a place to sit. :hello:

-Charlie

 

[Wedgy]

I found an offset box-end wrench to work the best. I used a ratchet for the allen key. You can use either/both to tighten/loosen.

-Charlie

That was how I got my 1st set off before I had the flex ratchets. I was turning the allen head and holding the nut it twists the boot around when you do it that way. Whatever works !

 

[808Waterman]

I used the same method as PhatyDuck. Worked like a charm.

 

[jeredcollins]

Great advice from everyone. BTW, I'm super jealous of how rust free your shock mount area is. Mine looks horrible and I'm concerned how many years I have left.

 

[phattyduck]

Great advice from everyone. BTW, I'm super jealous of how rust free your shock mount area is. Mine looks horrible and I'm concerned how many years I have left.

California isn't all bad. :rofl:

-Charlie