Trail failure, shock top nut

[absolute yota]

I took the family for a little trail ride, easy stuff. We bombed down a dirt road and turned off into a bug muddy rutted section with some speed to keep things moving. Of course I hit something in there and kinda launched the front end a bit, usually not a big deal. After the mud hole there is a trail with rocks and ruts, as soon as we hit the rocks i slowed down because I heard somethig wrong with the front suspension. What do you know ? lost the top nut for the shock which then came out of its mount and then the shock rod caught under the shock mount plate, pushing the whole thig down , way down. I think beyond normal compression. I had all my tools with me so I ended up getting it back in but I had no nut so I had to cross thread on of my lug nuts on it to keep it in. WHen I dropped the jack under the control arm the shock released because of the downward pressure and the cross threaded nut was holding it in. It was as though it had been hung up some how and went back out the whole way when i put the weight on it. Not good. Does anyone know what size nut that is ? I couldnt find it at the Home Depot and its sunday so nobody else was open. Im going to get 2 new shocks i guess if the threads are shot. Running 886 OME springs, any suggestions ?

 

[bvc]

I would check your local hardware store ie- Ace or Truevalue. I've had good luck there.

Is that stud thats stripped hardened steel? If so, can be hard to tap when stripped.

 

[absolute yota]

I decided that because the shock was over compressed and I had already destroyed the threads to just order new OME shocks. Figured its better to replace them both at the same time and they are made to work with the ome springs so... $300 bucks from amazon, hope i get them this week so they can go on next weekend. I was tempted to get some sexy coilovers but not for 800 bucks on the low end, no thanks.

 

[eddiebx]

Glad to see you were able to MacGyver your way back home! And good call on getting a set of new matching OME shocks, I wouldn't want to chance it with the old ones either if I was in your position

 

[absolute yota]

Yeah , having the kids made it hard , my 3 yr old had to poop , good thing we had some napkins in the truck. My woman was surprisingly patient while I fixed the truck. She even helped with the jack and i had her standing on the bumper trying to compress the spring more as i couldnt get the shock through the top plate at first. I told her we were extremely lucky to be driving home . Good thing i read the no spring compressor thread recently because it was the only way to fix it. Coming out of the trail was slow and noisy because the shock wasn't tight. It goes to show you can't have too many tools with you. 2 jeeps tried to use the trail I was blocking but they turned around and didn't even speak to us, it was obvious we were having problems but they didn't give a shit. I bet a Toyota guy would have stopped if he saw a family of 4 trying to make a trail repair. I know I would have regardless of what vehicle was being driven.

 

[aha2988]

Yeah , having the kids made it hard , my 3 yr old had to poop , good thing we had some napkins in the truck. My woman was surprisingly patient while I fixed the truck. She even helped with the jack and i had her standing on the bumper trying to compress the spring more as i couldnt get the shock through the top plate at first. I told her we were extremely lucky to be driving home . Good thing i read the no spring compressor thread recently because it was the only way to fix it. Coming out of the trail was slow and noisy because the shock wasn't tight. It goes to show you can't have too many tools with you. 2 jeeps tried to use the trail I was blocking but they turned around and didn't even speak to us, it was obvious we were having problems but they didn't give a shit. I bet a Toyota guy would have stopped if he saw a family of 4 trying to make a trail repair. I know I would have regardless of what vehicle was being driven.

Thats crazy the other guys on the trail just turned there heads, every where I've ever wheeled I've never seen somebody drive past a stopped damaged vehicle without asking if help was needed.

I would have called OME or the place you purchased the OME kit from originally they should back up there product. I ran the OME 886 front struts for quiet a few years and never had that happen even with the crazy driving i put it through!

glad you got it fixed and back home with your family though, and no you can't have enough tools on the trail lol I always come packed with just about my entire shop, if i could fit a portable gas powered mig welder in my truck it would come along to lol

 

[absolute yota]

Thats crazy the other guys on the trail just turned there heads, every where I've ever wheeled I've never seen somebody drive past a stopped damaged vehicle without asking if help was needed.
This is CT after all, people here are *******s. Thats why they call it southern hospitality not new england hospitality. I would still hepl someone out but most people here would run you over to get a good parking spot at starbucks.

(quote=aha2988 )I would have called OME or the place you purchased the OME kit from originally they should back up there product. I ran the OME 886 front struts for quiet a few years and never had that happen even with the crazy driving i put it through!

It was kind of my fault I think, that side had been making noise so I tried to tighten it down more and I may have damaged the threads. The threads were all rusty from 3 years of road salt, not sure but It seems strange it happened a couple days after I had messed with it. OME is great stuff and thats whats going back in.

 

[zopperman]

Yeah , having the kids made it hard , my 3 yr old had to poop , good thing we had some napkins in the truck. My woman was surprisingly patient while I fixed the truck. She even helped with the jack and i had her standing on the bumper trying to compress the spring more as i couldnt get the shock through the top plate at first. I told her we were extremely lucky to be driving home . Good thing i read the no spring compressor thread recently because it was the only way to fix it. Coming out of the trail was slow and noisy because the shock wasn't tight. It goes to show you can't have too many tools with you. 2 jeeps tried to use the trail I was blocking but they turned around and didn't even speak to us, it was obvious we were having problems but they didn't give a shit. I bet a Toyota guy would have stopped if he saw a family of 4 trying to make a trail repair. I know I would have regardless of what vehicle was being driven.

Thats crazy. Glad you and the family got out OK.

FWIW you can compress a spring with a ratchet strap (dunno about you guys but I always have one or two in case I need to put stuff on my roof)

 

[absolute yota]

I tried but the straps I keep in the truck were too big. Beleive me I tried that. I will be getting a smaller strap for the 4runner to serve this purpose. As well as an extra top nut for the shocks j.i.c. The reason I had a hard time compressing was that I had to compress much more than normal since the shock was stuck in a compressed state. I had the whole weight of the vehicle, jack stand on opposite rear corner to fight the flex, plus my fiance on thefront bumper and the kids in the front seat , but I still had to pull down with all my weight while I cross threaded the lug nut on the first couple of threads. Then it released pretty hard with a pop when I let the suspension drop. Anyways new shocks due to be delivered the 24 th plenty of time to repair for the trail run that weekend. :biggrin2:

 

[zopperman]

I tried but the straps I keep in the truck were too big. Beleive me I tried that. I will be getting a smaller strap for the 4runner to serve this purpose. As well as an extra top nut for the shocks j.i.c. The reason I had a hard time compressing was that I had to compress much more than normal since the shock was stuck in a compressed state. I had the whole weight of the vehicle, jack stand on opposite rear corner to fight the flex, plus my fiance on thefront bumper and the kids in the front seat , but I still had to pull down with all my weight while I cross threaded the lug nut on the first couple of threads. Then it released pretty hard with a pop when I let the suspension drop. Anyways new shocks due to be delivered the 24 th plenty of time to repair for the trail run that weekend. :biggrin2:

Jeez. I was worried someone would ream me for the safety factor with the ratchet lol. I can't believe that didn't work. I guess with stock coils its a different story, ratchet makes pretty easy work of them lol.