Konis broke when installing - Tuner-Junction

scottigee · #1 (**permalink**) April 15th, 2007, 08:54 PM

Well I'm pissed. I thought these were higher quality than this. Basically I tapped the 14mm strut mount bolt with a rubber mallet to help it find the other side of the shock fork and this is what i got.

Anybody seen this before? I tried threading the little square piece back onto the bolt and it won't even fit. Wondering if I can get by putting some kind of locking nut back there.

njn63 · #2 (**permalink**) April 15th, 2007, 11:46 PM

that's interesting, it should thread back on. If it doesn't it might actually be the wrong shock.

I've broke those nuts off before for strut bar installs but they were never easy to get off.

I'd probably throw a nut on it and leave it, they're only really spot welded so it's not a very strong setup anyways.

jadkar · #3 (**permalink**) April 16th, 2007, 01:41 AM

Those shocks are pretty damn good. You figure out of the thousands they make some may have some issues, you may have just had some bad luck. Like Nick said, toss a nut back on and use a dab of locktite and you'll be good to go.

I would also for the hell of it check the part number on the shocks and make sure you got the right ones. That nut should thread on and it's better just to double check.

njn63 · #4 (**permalink**) April 16th, 2007, 02:05 AM

If you really wanted to, i'm sure either Koni would warranty them or a local welder could spot weld the nut back on really easily (although, welding on brand new shocks might void any warranty so i'd skip that route). I just think it'd be easier to throw a nut on it and torque it though to avoid the hassle. It looks like you just got the unlucky one where the welder wasn't set right and got no penetration.

jon ROCKS!!!! · #5 (**permalink**) April 16th, 2007, 04:25 AM

its usually hard to break those kinds of setups

scottigee · #6 (**permalink**) April 16th, 2007, 06:55 PM

thanks guys. I talked to TireRack and Koni today...both have great customer service.
Koni said that does happen on occasion but those nuts should still work, just torque them down. I'm going to double check the threads on the one that wasn't going on and try a little harder (without stripping anything) They're also sending me some nylon insert nuts that will replace the square nuts, so that's cool.
I also was missing a M12 nut for the strut shaft and they're sending me that too.

So now I'm in my garage...take 2...

[edit 5 minutes later...] yeah both square nuts fit fine with only hand-applied force. Must have been all that yellow paint

A_White_Gs-R · #7 (**permalink**) April 16th, 2007, 10:03 PM

i was gonna tellyou the paint didnt let the nut thread back on. and spot welding isnt always solid especially on massproduced shocks. you probably tapped it a lil harder than you thought though it still shouldnt have broken though.