So not too unsurprisingly, the trunk struts on this convertible gave up the ghost quite a while ago. Picked up a pair and figured this would be a nice quick repair.

Soooooooo wrong.

Unbolting the top two bolts is a piece of cake. However, I can't get the #$!^& ball end to come loose at the bottom. On most cars they simply pop off. This one isn't budging. FSM doesn't seem to indicate any special magic either.

Anyone replaced these before? Do they just pop off or is there some other trick needed to get the ball end off?

 

Yes, I remember I had a similar problem when I replaced mine about a year or so ago. I'll take a look at them when I get home this evening and see if that jogs my memory on what I did to replace them.

 

Thanks! I beat the thing today, but it took a Dremel to cut the old studs off and screw the new ones in. Step 1 shouldn't have to be "Find a Dremel" to install trunk struts, but here we are!