Help a poor shade tree mechanic. When replacing my shock/struts I have a question. The bloody nuts on top of the struts are the problem. When I have the struts off the car and the spring compressor on, when I try to remove the nuts the shaft just turns. Can't get the nut off. How do you hold the shaft so the nut can be removed? What I have done for the last eon or so is get my Makita grinder and cut the nuts off the rear struts. On the front the Makita can't get in the recess so I get my carbide drill and drill the nut on its side and then split the nut off with a screwdriver. Gotta be a professional way to do this. What if I had to put the same strut back on? Yikes, its all goofed up! Buy the way I've tried visegrips wrapped with duct tape on the shafts but it does not hold. I've tried visegrips without duct tape and it still turns(the shaft). I know there are some real mechanics out there who know their stuff. P.S. It only takes about five minutes max, to drill or grind the nuts off, just wanna do it some other way next time.

 

Hi. Were you using an impact wrench? With a ratchet I've found it to be hopeless. I used to take the car to somebody close to home and have him break the nut loose and back it off half way. Then at home I wrapped a couple of turns of rubber around the shaft (i.e. old inner tube, less chance of scratching the shaft, better grip than duct tape), and off they come. I've finally bought a compressor, so the last one was a piece of cake. How would a real mechanic do it? I dunno.
-John.

 

Ref to above post.....ratchet. The whole shaft turns. Need to stop the shaft dead in the water so the nut can be removed. Maybe I'll try the impact wrench someday, but it seems like the shaft will still turn on me. Could be wrong about that. Maybe the next time I put one on the car I'll chunk the selflocking nut and just use a lockwasher and plain nut with some lube on the shaft to make it easier to remove someday. Thank you.

 

OOPs, forget this post. I remember how.

 

When I installed my Koni Sports I loosened the center nut while the struts were still in the car. That worked for me.

James

 

Thank you WANKEL 7......after I did the shock struts and wrote the post, I remembered how I should have done the front ones. Lossen the nut, then remove the strut and its all downhill from there. I still have doubts about the rear shock struts and doing it that way. Well in a couple of years from now I'll find out. All I could remember while I was doing it, was how I had learned to either drill the nut off or in the case of the rears just take a grinder to it. Quick, but makes the strut useless for further use. All four of the ones I took off, you could shove the piston in and they all just stayed there. DOA. Its a salvage vehicle that I don't know the past on. Bet money they were the original shocks. Thanks for the input though.

 

Yeah, I had to drive to my cousin's house and use his impact wrench. On the fronts you can just stick a screwdriver through the bolts that go throught the strut tower and that will hold the shaft steady so you can remove the center bolt.