Just installed new J&M mounts and Koni struts. The problem is the top strut nut is getting tight and the strut hex isnt sticking thru enough to put a wrench on. Actually the top of the strut hex is almost flush with the nut. I am not using any spacers but I do have the stock strut shaft cover installed. Should I take the shaft cover off? Or am I missing something else?

 

remove the strut shaft cover, its doesnt fit the mount

 

thats what I was thinking but when I did a search I thought there was someone who said they fit. I will remove them and see what happens.

 

never seen them ever fit these mounts. Usually, if you really want a cover, people get the universal offroad ones and zip[ tie them on. i dont use any, no problems, but its not a DD

 

the stock strut piston covers dont work, i had use aftermarket offroad ones on my J&M mounts and AGX struts. only one ive seen to get the stockers to work was twinturbo or something.

 

..this is totally news to me. I installed J&M plates and Konis last winter and didnt have an issue.

 

Great! Now I'm really confused.

 

I installed the J@M mounts and konis last year, i started to use the old dust covers and was able to tighten them up but i realized the strut shaft wasnt tight in the mount. i came on here and asked if they fit or not and evyone said NO. Ii ended up getting the offroad rubber dust covers and they work great.


1meanz if you have J@M mounts and you installed them with the factory dust boots your struts are not secured in the mount the shaft. they should be snug inside of the sides of bearing and you cant do this with the stock boots. If the plastic dust boot brakes your strut will now be loose in the mount

 

I ended up modding some universal strut boots. All is good now.

 

#1, your post is so poorly written that I can't understand what you're talking about. "your struts are not secured in the mount the shaft." That is completely incoherent.

#2, I'm not the only one who has successfully used the stock dust covers. Twinturbo has done it too. I've ran the car very hard with these installed and noticed no issues, noises, or looseness. Ive consulted a few other guys that race these cars and we'll see what they say.

Can someone articulate what exactly the issue is here? Do the dust shields keep the strut from completely sliding up into the camber plate? My dust shields are OEM units and if I recall correctly (i put these on a year ago) my dust shields have a metal spacer in the top of them. They are designed to go between the strut and strut mount. I'm still failing to see the issue here and I'm not the only one who seems to have successfully done this.

This is a pic of how far my struts came through the mount. This is also how I adjust them with the car on the ground. Are you guys sure you don't have the strut bearing installed in the plate upside down?

 

I contacted a friend who is a hotpart dealer. He in turn contacted J&M directly and this was their response.

"We have always removed them on the ones we have installed. I have had some customers report that they had no problems with installing the factory dust boot. I would just tell the customer to make sure the dust boot doesn't interfere with the rotation of the bearing and the strut shaft shoulder is seated properly up to the bearing."

 

It dose not alow the strut shaft shoulder to fully seat on the bearing. Unless you have a different washer in the cover or just cranked it down and bent it, I can not see how it would work. The washer is too wide and hits the lower "black" part of the mount before the bearing therebye "wedging" the strut shaft between the bearing and the bearing mount. Mine are off the car right now and I just had this problem. I would like to see if there are different versions of dust covers / washers.

 

I just pulled the front springs of my IROC to cut them and realized that I don't have the dust covers installed either. I would have sworn I re-used them but I didn't. Sorry for the confusion and bad info guys. I need to get my facts straight.

Looks like Twin Turbo is the only one who has used them. On my car I have my camber set aggressive enough that the dust covers hit the body. TT may run into that when he aligns the car.