Build 43. Rear Dampers

first I found the two damper sleeves which I had already put aside in my "suspension" leftovers box from the front part of the build. I also removed the two upper bolts that were loosely in the chassis, note the carpet is not yet fixed down from the previous steps to allow access to this, I will actually leave the edges of the carpet on Velcro strips so access will always remain easy to these bolts. The sleeve was coated liberally in copper grease and placed in the upper mounting hole. I then slipped each damper into the vehicle and pushed through the cap head bolt to hold it in place.

I was missing the official lower HC bolt for this step, so decided to use a placeholder bolt/pin punch for now so I could secure the top bolt and torque to the required 47Nm. This meant I could carry on with the rear bulk head whilst I waited for the HC bolts to be posted out.

I actually do have 2 of the required 4 HC bolts, but I plan on installing the rear radius arm next, which uses 2 of these. This also means I can carry on with the rear build until the 2 missing bolts arrive. It is very clear in the manual that the dampers do not have to be fit/tightened just yet so I am not blocked whilst I wait.

Copper grease on bolts and sleeve.

Installed and tightened on the upper bolt, lower bolt waiting to be placed.

Once the lower bolt arrived, it was a 10 minute job to apply copper grease to the bolt, and get it in and torqued up to 81Nm. Note the chamfer on the washers is pointing inwards as per the front suspension setup.

Timelapse