Bolt swap for new shocks

[pmac]

Hi,

Firstly, let me apologise for my lack of specific information here, but I will try my best. Rather than looking for peoples thoughts on what I can do, I'm looking for people who have actually been in this situation and had it fixed. If I knew exactly the issue and the specs, then thoughts would be great, but as I don't know the specifics, I need assistance from those who have been there, done that.

I have read somewhere here about someone who has had the issue, but for the life of me I can't find it.

I recently did a lift, and replaced my shocks with Bilstein 5100's, imported from Kolak.

The rear have a knock, and have found that the issue is the bolts are about 1 mm thinner than the hole in the crush tube in the eyelet of the shock.

There was also a problem with the shocks being too narrow for the mount and had to be bolstered out with washers.

The mechanic says there isn't a bolt available that fits the crush tube, so he has to have crush tube filled with metal to make the whole smaller so the bolt won't bounce up and down within it.

The crush tube is 35 mm long, 16mm outside and 12 mm inside. There was a reason he can't get a 12 mm bolt that fits but I can't recall the exact reason.

So has anyone had this issue and what did you do?

Many thanks

[fester]

This was also a WG issue and was covered in detail on one of the US forums, Jeepgarage I think but not sure.

Yes the spacing was taken care of with washers. The bolt issue for the WG was solved with a replacement 12mm bolt because the issue was the factory bolt was stepped down just behind the head. The replacement bolt was from memory 70mm long. The solution being to get a longer bolt with more shank (unthreaded section) as the shank of the bolt actually measures more than the threaded section. A 12mm thread does not measure 12mm diameter.

Not sure if this would solve your issue pmac but surely you mechanic has looked into it that far or is he just thinking it's already a 12mm bolt therefore all 12mm bolts are created equal. I'm guessing the length as it's a while ago I did this on the WG but it's not that hard. All you have to do is measure the length of the mounting section and get a bolt that has that much shank. The shank can't be that long obviously that it sticks out the other side otherwise the nut won't tighten but you can still pack it a little with extra washers if there is nothing perfect.

This fix was brought up here on this forum with a link to the US one but it was a long while ago.

Again this was the WG fix so apologies if it's not relevent to the WH.

[Tiddy]

Are you saying that the bolts that came with shocks are the wrong size?

If that's the case I would be getting back to Nick for the right size diameter bolts.

tiddy

[yoda42]

I would take the new shock and the old bolt to a bolt supplier, and have them match the tensile strength of the old bolt (should be marked on the head) with the internal diameter of the crush tube, I would be surprised if a bolt to suit could not be found!.

[fester]

Pmac, I just found the original WG thread.

http://www.ausjeepoffroad.com/forum/...ght=shock+bolt

[pmac]

Thanks guys - yep, Fester that was the link I had seen before. I couldn't find it as I was searching using WH/WK rather than WJ.

I'll pass it on to the mechanic.

Now, just to find the reason for the front clunking - totally different, being a much more substantial clunk rather than small continual clunks at the rear. Happens more on hard lock, but I reckon it's the D bushes at the bottom length of the front sway bar.

[timbotrog]

PMAC, may I ask which way your 5100's got installed? Rubber boot up or down?