fine to twist bottom of strut into place?

[4lowgan]

might be a noob question but my struts are two different orientations, asked the tech about it and he said its fine, he twisted the bottom about 90 degrees pretty forcibly with a crowbar after attaching the top hat to make it into the lower control arm. Can anyone weigh in on this or am I being paranoid, didn't seem right to me.

 

[4lowgan]

 

[taquitos]

That’s entirely fine. The top hats only bolt up to the shock bucket in one orientation because of the bolt hole pattern, but there’s nothing to clock the top hats to the shock shaft or clock the shock shaft relative to the shock body. I like to try and get the top hats oriented about right so that I don’t have to do this, but it’s perfectly fine. The important thing is that the spring stays seated in the right spot as it’s rotated and your spring is in the right spot.

 

[4lowgan]

That’s entirely fine. The top hats only bolt up to the shock bucket in one orientation because of the bolt hole pattern, but there’s nothing to clock the top hats to the shock shaft or clock the shock shaft relative to the shock body. I like to try and get the top hats oriented about right so that I don’t have to do this, but it’s perfectly fine. The important thing is that the spring stays seated in the right spot as it’s rotated and your spring is in the right spot.

Phew that's relieving to hear, thank you for your input, I appreciate it.

 

[TomDirt]

That’s entirely fine. The top hats only bolt up to the shock bucket in one orientation because of the bolt hole pattern, but there’s nothing to clock the top hats to the shock shaft or clock the shock shaft relative to the shock body. I like to try and get the top hats oriented about right so that I don’t have to do this, but it’s perfectly fine. The important thing is that the spring stays seated in the right spot as it’s rotated and your spring is in the right spot.

In other words, "measure twice, cut once". It sucks (and it's kinda scary), to rotate the bottom rod end all the way around, but you'll always have to rotate it that last little bit to slide into the LCA's. It's certainly not as easy on a 3.0 Fox coilover as it was on a Gen 2 tacoma unit.