So my daily driver developed an annoying clunk in the front driver side. A search here and on the Pelican board talks about a loose gland nut on the strut. Thought I'd just go through how I fixed it.

A couple of videos on YouTube:

Jumping up and down on the fender

With the wheel off

My garage is extremely echogenic so it sounds much louder than it does on the road! Annoying nonetheless.

Tools needed:
19mm socket
22mm socket
Giant pliers
Breaker Bar
Torque Wrench
Blue Locking Compound
Jacks, jack stands
Screwdriver, tamp or punch
Mallet

Paul

Loosen the lug bolts.


Jack it up.

Loosen the 22mm top nut after flattening the locking washer. Mine is rather beat up. Use a tamp or punch or screwdriver to knock down the edge of the washer that is curled up against the nut.



Giant channel lock pliers are good for this.

The rest of the washer had a little more heft to it but I would recommend replacing it every time. Note that the strut has an inner thread in addition to the larger outer thread.



I carefully tamped the strut down through the hole, be ready to support the bottom of the strut with a jack at the ball joint. Make sure you do not bugger up the inner or outer threads on the strut!

Take the wheel off. Ease the strut down into the fender. Believe it or not, if you maneuver it around, there is room to remove the upper strut cover without delivering the strut past the inner lip of the fender. I have a Boge (black) strut I believe.



Cover removed. The triple rubber bumper seen on top of the strut.

Supporting the whole thing with a jack. If you don't, the brake line will! (Don't ask me how I know...)



The primitive black arrow head points to a tiny space between the gland nut on top and the bottom strut cover below. That little distance accounted for the clunking.

Gland nut removed to clean the threads a bit. Rubber bumper removed also.



Blue locking compound was applied to the threads. I tightened the heck out of it with the big pliers but forgot to take a picture. Now there's no more space between the gland nut and the bottom strut cover.

This is the most key step of the whole process. Jacking up the bottom ball joint area will not fully deliver the strut up into the hole in your front trunk. The strut slowly collapses under the weight of the top strut cover and you can't push it up either. So, thread a metric bolt into the hole in the top of the strut. Perhaps your bolt is long enough to reach the hole in the trunk. Mine wasn't so t tied a wire around it and it was pretty easy to guide it up. For reassembly the washers and nut will slide over that small bolt and wire. I believe the inner diameter size of the strut is Metric Bolt 6 x 1.0.

BTW, I didn't realize this was the way to do it until I called Michael at Brad Mayeur's. Oh man, I don't want to talk about the frustration I had up until that point!



Torque it up to 58 ft-lb, rebend the washer and you are done!
Torque the wheels, 108 ft-lb for steelies and 94 ft-lb for alloys. Problem solved, no more clicky clunks!

Hope this helps.

Nice write-up, Paul

I had the same problem. Solved it exactly the same way. Including the channel locks. (Yours are nicer looking than mine). Excellent write up. Isn't there a permanent place to store this "clunking remedy"?

great write up
thanks!


cjl

I had this problem too. Before I reassembled it I cut about 1 1/2" off the bottom of the upper cover so I can recheck the that nut from time to time without having to do this all over again. When the car is on the ground the cover is well over the gland nut.

Hmm, does "recheck" mean that you can tighten the nut from inside the wheel well without messing with the top nut in the trunk? Do you have a picture?

Paul

That is exactly what I mean Paul. I can lft the car up, remove the front wheel and see the gland nut. There is enough room to put channel locks on it. When the car is on the ground the nut is covered. I do not remember by how much. I do not have a photo with the suspension in full droop. I do have the bottom of the cover that I cut off. It is just a 1 1/2" tall steel ring. I never drive my car in rain or snow so I figured it is just a dust shield and this is enough for me. The cover I made for the struts on my track car is even shorter. I see the shock strut on that car frequently and it looks really good. I never see any debris on top of the strut.

That would sure make it easier! Hopefully mine doesn't loosen up again...

Paul

Somehow I remembered this thread almost a year later.

Got it

I just did this over the weekend. I have boge struts with bilstein dampers. I started on the passenger side. Mine has a slight gap with the threaded collar, however there was no slop. I took it apart anyway. Put locktite on the collar and put it back on. Still has the same gap. Went to the drivers side, took it apart, same gap, before and after. However after torquing both nuts to 58 lbs, the clunk is gone. I also noticed my washers weren't bent. Wonder if they came loose?

I talked to Bilstein. Gap of 2-3mm is normal. If it bottomed out, you wouldn't know if it was tight to the insert. Looks worrisome but it's correct.

@Steve