Brand new shocks. Is it normal for it to take a ton of turning power to turn the nut? I'm having to turn it so hard that it's stripping the tip on the shock, where I have to hold the shaft in place. Both shocks were like this (Monroe).

The problem is, one of the shocks was bad, it wouldn't compress once I had it on the car. Now I'm trying to take the nut off, and it's taking a ton of force to get the nut off, and the tip is stripped to where I can't really turn the nut anymore. It needs to turn about 1/4" more, so I'm almost there.

This job has been a nightmare.

 

Sounds like you cross-threaded them....

 

No, I figured out what it is. The nut supplied with the monroe shock is special. I'm not sure if all shocks come with these particular nuts, but from what I've been told, you should be able to finger tighten a nut down.

The nuts with the shocks are smashed on top. The threads are crushed at the top of the nut to keep it from ever vibrating loose. It made it a nightmare to get the nut on, and I can't imagine ever having to take the nuts off. So, I returned a shock that was DOA, and went to the hardware store and bought a stainless nut and lock washer. This made the job 100x easier.

 

It's called a "prevailing torque" fastener. Maybe it was little too "smashed".