Thread: Whats the correct torque for shock mounts?

So... my Dobinson suspension system finally arrived in the UAE yesterday!
Reading through a few paragraphs on the boxes it goes on about the correct settings for the top and bottom bushes.
How do you know when you've tightened the bushes down enough? Too tight will damage the bushes and not enough is...how much?

Thx.

Theres 2 primary schools of thought on tightening the shocky bushes, both top and bottom.

For eye bushes that are not sleeve supported or on shanked pins you can

do them up as tight as you can, go for a short drive or rock the vehicle in place then back the nut off leave it for a minute then do it up to about 40Nm (which is about the minimum typical torque setting for the diameter of the bolt if the manufacturer says different use their torque value) This is the method that I use, not because its better but its faster.

the other side is that you just do it up to the 40Nm (or the OEM spec) drive it around for a bit then retorque the nuts, repeat the procedure of drive then tighten untill the nuts dont need to move again. This is the better of the two methods if you have the time to do it and DONT get the shocky rubbers full of junk during driving


For pin bushes that are not sleeve or shank supported its about the same procedure.

I do something a little different, I measure them and aim for a total compression of about 1/3 the bush stack height (including the supporting washers) which realisitcally gives an effective compression of about between 1/2 and 1/3 of the the rubber thickness,

If you have sleeve or shank supported (where the outside washer presses on either the unthreaded shank of the bolt or on the internal support sleeve) do the nut up till it touches and is firm, if you havent already gone over the maximum nominal torque setting for the bolt diameter keep going till the nut is at maximum nominal torque for its size.