So the last guy to work on my car went tork crazy with his air wrench and stripped out all my wheel threads. I ended up having to change my rotors and swap out my axle.

Today I was going to install my strut brace and found out that I can't take off four of the eight strut tower nuts, they just spin! I tried putting a vice grip on there and pulling up while turning hoping to grab some thread but to no avail.

Any ideas? If I cut them off are they replacable without replacing the whole front strut assemblies on both sides?

Thanks

 

The fasteners you're fighting with are M8 X 1.25 studs that are pressed into the upper strut plate. After you get the struts free, you should be able to press them out and replace them with a bolt and nut. To give yourself enough clearance, you'll probably want to put the head of the bolt down. I recommend nyloc nuts with hardened washers on both sides. If you don't have clearance to get a wrench on the bolt head, you could have them tack-welded to the strut plate.

 

Go to Sears and find a nut cracker/splitter. Split the nuts and remove the struts. If the studs are still good, tack weld them in place from the bottom, if not, replace the tops. I've stripped a couple of them using an impact during install. If you're lucky, an impact may be used to remove them. If all that fails, grind them off. Loosen the strut top nut as step one. When you reinstall them, use a torque wrench.

 

I'm glad I've resisted the impact gun temptation. I have air ratchets, but they are not powerful enough to damage anything. Dandy for spinning things off/on that are in tight spaces.

If I had an impact gun, I know I'd end up getting lazy & using it where I shouldn't.