does anyone know how to torque this without putting stress on the adjuster? thanks

 

You need an air tool!!! With a deep socket. That was the only way that I got my JICs on. Confirmed from a JIC dealer. The piston shaft just spins with hand tools. With the impact wrench, the fluid inside the shock (strut, sorry) will give enough resistance to tighten the nut.

Looks like you have Konis? I would check with a dealer that sells them first. But this is likely the only way.

 

TeamRX8 said that Koni forbids the use of air tools to install that nut But that's what I do as well.

It is difficult to find a way to hang on to the shaft to keep it from spinning the way the shock mount upper is designed

 

Difficult? That is understated. I spent a whole day thinking about it and couldn't even come up with an idea to try.

 

I agree with TeamRX8 - I just installed Koni's and there are instructions to NOT use air tools. I used a combination wrench and held the shaft with an ALLEN wrench as my Koni's had this.......
I know from installing the OE stuff, there was no ALLEN capability and I was able to tighten it without the shaft turning (not sure how/why but I was).

A suggestion may be to wrap the shaft (sounds kinda wrong) with something like a cloth and hold onto it with a pair of channel locks/vise grips?

 

See my post here for the same issue: https://www.rx8club.com/1328278-post/

There was no way for me to torque it since I decided to do everything bolted to the car,
instead of taking the assembly out. In any case, with using the 5mm Allen hex key
in the top nut void, and turning it with close-box wrench, the nut eventually stopped
moving no matter how much I tried. Seems to be quiet & noise-free so far (knock on
wood).

 

Im having a similar problem but instead i cant take off the nut without the shaft turning. I currently have tein coilovers but now I am going back to stock suspension and need to put the upper mounts on my stock shocks. With tein basics you can use a crescent wrench to torque down the nut and keep the shaft from moving since its not damper adjustable. Now that I want to disassemble the coilovers but once the nut reaches a certain point, I cant use a crescent wrench anymore. The shaft just moves with the nut. can anyone help?

 

use Flare Nut or Torque Adaptor.