Strut woes... question

[PMD Power]

well I have a broken mount on my drivers rear strut.. so i decided to change the rear pair.. to find out the car has normal non SHO struts on it.. these things are like 2-3 inches longer than the SHO ones.. the big problem I am having is.. the center where you would normally hold the rod still witha 10mm wrench and take the bolt off with a crows foot socket.... there is no hex pattern on the rod (piston) of the strut so I cannot hold it still to take it apart.. any ideas on what to do to get this thing apart?

 

[RStalveyARFF]

there's absolutely nothing on the top? No star hole or anything? That's messed up.

 

[pete c]

vice grips?

 

[smcallis]

I had a really bad time getting a strut off the mount once. I ended up taking a sawzall to the old shaft.

 

[projectSHO89]

Mine were rusted so badly that I had to replace the strut, the spring, and the upper mount all at the same time.

On one of them, the shaft and nut were so rusted that the nut was almost eaten through and the top of the shaft was gone.

Replacing all of the pieces makes disassembly unnecessary.

Steve

 

[PMD Power]

I like the sawzall idea but I do not have one... I dunno if a die grinder will fit in there well enough to not hurt the spring itself...

I wish I had the money to replace the springs and mounts but I don't otherwise i would be putting in Tokico or something on all four corners instead of just this one replacment...
I guess I will see what kind of cutter I can get my hands on to atleast get the spring out.. then again I don't even have a decent table vise to hole the rod still afterwards to get the botl off... hrm...

 

[luigisho]

Some Home Depots' rent tools by the day, as well as other businesses that do only that. So, for say $15 you can rent the tool for the job. Just make sure you know what the right tool for the job is before you rent something.