Bilstein 5100 Instal Problem

I have been creeping this site for at least 10 years. Y'all helped me pick my truck as well as saving me a ton of money by teaching me fixes along the way. I will post pictures shortly. I have a 2014 TRD Sport DCLB that I bought in 2016. It came with a OME Nitrochargers, Dakar pack, and total Total Chaos UCAs. I added a 1/2 inch spacer in 2019 when I jumped to 285's. Just got new tires, and needed to replace the shocks. Can't get Nitrochargers anymore so I switched to Bilstein 5100's so I could keep using the 885x springs and not have to start from scratch. Installed them Sunday, removed the spacers at that time because I realized I was sitting a little over 24" hub to fender. The install went fine, (struts are set at lowest setting) but here's the problem:

At droop the passenger side dust boot slides down and then back up, as does the washer that sits on top of it, making a nice rattle/clang every time. The rubber bushings above the top hats are secure but not compressed even though I have bottomed out the nut to the edge of the threads on the shaft. Not sure if this is the cause of the problem, but I doubt it's helping. Under load the dust covers are solid with no play at all.

Was there something I missed about switching from OME to Bilstein?

Did the 1/2 inch spacer compress the rubber under the top hat so that it's not as thick as it needs to be?

How do I take up the space needed to compress that washer without adding the spacers back in?

I appreciate any ideas y'all may have. I've read just about ever thread on here about shocks and struts, and called and emailed Bilstein, but they won't respond.

 

The nut needs to be tightened more, the nylock portion will go past where the threads start. There’s a flat on the shaft to keep it from spinning while you tighten the nut.

 

I hear what you're saying, but it's metal on metal and there are no more threads. The shaft is smooth and the nut isn't going any farther.

I backed the stupid thing off and removed the rubber bushing just to make sure I wasn't imagining things.

 

Are you talking about the shock shaft or the tophat?

 

I'm talking about the shock shaft.

 

I think you must be missing some parts for the bushing assembly.

 

This ^

Need pics...

 

Sounds like you assembled the top of shock wrong.

 

Not sure if this applies but I recently changed to OME springs on my 5100s, this time around I opted for new

$39 KYB SM5640 - Mount Kit

strut mount kits from by KYB, my upper shock bolt was almost to the point of bottoming out on the threads and there's some age cracks in the bushings, they were the original spring hats and hardware. Compared to the bushings I took out the new ones had a nice improvement on how the truck feels on small bumps.

 

Thanks. I was wondering if I just needed to replace the mount kit. I assembled the strut according to the directions, but I don't remember what all came out with the old struts and that's all in the trash.

I'm not familiar with KYB, but since it can be here tomorrow and I'm leaving for Port Aransas on Saturday I'll give it a shot.

Thanks again.