i know most of you will tell me to use the search but i'm low on time. i took off my struts and can't get the locknut on the top off. tried with springs compressed and not compressed it moves with the assembly. i need them off!!!! any ideas and sugestions please!!!

 

i used a torch on the drivers side, then i wised up and removed the nut while the passenger side was still installed in the car (still needed torch). use two large pipe wrenches and write off the strut inside. my toch blew out all the oil seals in the old unit.

i also used a chisel to square off the nut a little, cause it kept stripping..

in other words: fo shizzle, get yo chisel

 

vice grips

 

If you are refering to the top nut on the strut shaft, hit it with an impact gun, while still in the car. Do not remove, just loosen.

If you are refering to the large nut on the strut tube, mount the tube in a vise and use a pipe wrench or large cresent wrench.

 

damn i wish i would have known that when they were still in the car. do you think i can take them to shop and they can zip them off with an impact gun?(they are both now uncompressed) and there's no way i'm torching it.......i don't trust myself.

 

I took it off with when the strut was out of the car. I held the shaft with vice grips and used the impact gun.

I came up with this problem again last month and when I put the impact on it, with the strut still in the car, it just spun. So I guess that the shaft still needs to be held somehow.

 

If the springs are still on, I assume, then attach the spring compressor and hit it with the gun. Hand wrenching just isn't fast enough, especially on worn struts, because the strut shaft will spin. If you are replacing the struts and don't care about the old ones, you can clamp a set of 9R vise grips on the strut shaft to keep it from spinning and hand wrench the top nut.

 

well i was and i just took them to the shop. he was cool about it and only charged me $20 cash. thanks for all the advise from everyone. i think i'm going to look for a huge compressor, this is the second time in a week i needed the power of air. thanks again all.

p.s. thanks goes out to those mechcanics who are lookin to make a quick buck when their bosses backs are turned. paying full price sucks

 

Once you go air, you never go back, it's like turbocharging and potato chips. You always want more power and you can never have enough air tools.

 

Dude, definate. Just got some air tools right before I put new shocks in. Lifesavers!! Do it!