I noticed that my KYB shocks had a shoulder on the threaded shaft about 1.5" from the top. Not a true shoulder, just no threads after the first 1.5". When I assembled and put the first nut on, then tightened it to pre-load the rubber bushings above and below the hole in the body, I noticed that the nut stopped when it got to the unthreaded part of the shaft. This turned out to be the perfect pre-load or compression of the bushings and I tightened the nut firmly against the unthreaded area. I had someone hold the very top of the outer sleeve of the shock with ChannelLocks to keep it from turning, making sure not to apply any crushing force to that outer sleeve. So, then, I had that extra nut to deal with. Of course, I've installed many shocks on my GT's over the past 40 years and have dealt with this situation a number of times. I think in the past I used right angle bent needle nose pliers that I inserted down into the recessed hole and grabbed hold of the nut, then I put the second nut on and tightened it with a socket while holding the lower nut with the needle nosers. I couldn't hold the nut for too long before it would spin due to the torque I was applying to the top nut, but it appears to have worked just fine and I never encountered a front shock that had it's nuts come loose. I started this thread to see if there was a better way.
Someone on FB suggested replacing the top nut with a nylon insert lock nut, with maybe a star washer between the nuts. This seems to be a nice simple way to get the job done and the star washer, plus the lock nut, would give me pretty good peace of mind that the nuts won't loosen up. Like I said, I never discovered that any of my shock nuts had unscrewed using my bent needle nose pliers method.
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