Help. My gland nut is loose on the strut. Volvo 244 dl. 1989. Its just resting about the strut cartridge and clacking all around when I drive.

When I tried by hand to screw it back in, it doesnt go. Is there a special trick to getting it back in? I wonder if it is stripped? If it is, where can I order this nut? I have searched everywhere online! How does this come out in the first place? How can I make sure its gonna stay in when I eventually get it back in.

If it is not stripped, which I do not see any threads that look stripped, do I need to disassemble to cartridge in a special way to get it back in? Any and all suggestions welcome!

Thanks!

Manicvolvogirl

What brand strut cartridges do you have installed?

How long have the strut cartridges been installed? What side?

If you installed Bilstein HD, they may not seat, and the gland nut does secure with around three turns of thread engagement.

If you have Sachs, the gland nut may not secure. The few reports of this issue recently in the last few years.
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"...do I need to disassemble to cartridge in a special way to get it back in? "

I don't think there's any need to disassemble it unless the nut needs to be replaced because it or the strut housing threads are damaged. That's because the strut in its housing would not even contact the nut until it was nearly fully seated in the tube.

Agreed, the best way to get to this is with that side of the car jacked up, spring extended, so you can reach the nut with a hook spanner, pipe wrench, or other means, through the coil.





http://cleanflametrap.com/strut.html
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Art Benstein near Baltimore

Reassembly is the reverse of disassembly. Except the profanity. You don't take that back; you just keep adding to it.

I have had the nut loosen on several of my cars, you can tighten the nut as others have suggested.

If the nut has come off you may need to disassemble the strut in order to get the nut threaded (started), mine has never come off.

Dan

Nope! You should be able to tighten it. Jack it up and remove the wheel, then you should be able to get access to it. The right tool is a spanner - a hook with a socket for a 3/8 or 1/2 inch drive square head. Vice grips or channel locks may work (they'd need to be huge), or you can do it with a pipe wrench.

There are two things that could cause problems
1) The threads in the strut tube are stripped out.
2) The threads are different between gland nut and strut tube. This happened to me when I had a shop do mine on my 740. They also put the strut upper mounts in 180 degrees off. Took a long time to figure it out though.

I would say get your head and/or a mirror in there and look at the threads. Hopefully they're not stripped. A dab of blue locktite will help keep it from backing out. Don't go crazy with it - I mean like two or three dots of it smaller than 8mm.

Good luck!

I have found that jacking a Volvo up will give enough space, between spring wraps, to use large channel lock type pliers to tighten the gland nut retaining the strut cartridge.
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john

You may have to get the strut/spring out of the way so you can center the cartridge/shaft before trying to get the gland nut started. For 4 decades I've just used a pipe wrench on them even though they make special tools to tighten them.

+1 pipe wrench

+1 pipe wrench