I know this sounds foolish and isn't really much of a crisis, but I've managed to turn another simple job into a two day ordeal. Had to stop tonight because it got dark and now my anxiety level is rising rapidly...

I'm installing Bilstein shocks all the way around. Rears went on easy. The old front ones need to be wrestled off, but I got the first one OK.

Here's my problem: the old shocks had a cupped metal washer, rubber grommet, another rubber grommet, another cupped metal washer, and a nut on top. The grommets sandwiched the shock tower. The new front Bilstein (BE5-2549) has one great big washer, one big tapered rubber grommet that fits through the hole in the shock tower, a bushing that fits inside the rubber grommet hole, a cupped washer, and a lock nut to top the whole thing off.

It is not obvious to me what order the washers go on or what direction to stick the rubber thing into the shock mount (down from the top or up from the bottom.) And, I didn't get any instructions with the shocks.

I feel like it should go like this: rubber gromment goes in to the shock tower from the bottom with the large part underneath. The big washer goes on the shock piston rod which is then slid up through the bushing inside the grommet. The cupped washer goes on the top and then the nut is tightened and deforms the top part of the rubber grommet and squishes it down to hold the whole thing together.

Anybody recently done a set of front Bilsteins that can confirm that for me or correct it??

 

Things looked cleared in the daylight... put the bushings in from the bottom up and everything seems to work OK...

 

So you slept on it and the job got easier in the light of day.

Good.

 

I just put Bilsteins on a week ago and that is how I did it. Hope it was right. Looked good when I was done.