Dynamite 76

Help, I am trying to remove the nut on the top of my strut tower. Been to Clark's Garage, and using an electric impact wrench but... all that happens is that the insert (shock) just spins in the housing! How the heck do I get the sucker apart? Anyone else had this happen? Letting it soak in WD40 for the moment, but is there an alternative method that works? Also, how do you torque it to specification with an impact wrench when complete?

Thanks

stolarzj

For the stock struts, there is an allen head that needs to be held while your turning the nut. There is a tool that Paragon sells just for this, also used for the 02 sensor. But you can get by with a wrench and allen wrench.

75ohm

First off, what are you trying to do? You shouldn't take that thing off with a load on the spring...

xsboost90

load of those springs is very little- i usually hold them under my foot and zip the nut off w/a pneumatic air impact. Manually- there should be an alan in the top of the strut, hold that and use a wrench-or in some cases a socket w/a large vice grip on it.

sharky47

You need the special socket *or* a really strong impact powered by air to break it loose.

You NEED to either have a jack under the control arm, or better yet - a real spring compressor.

PeteL

I took mine apart at an auto hobby shop, using a good spring compressor and an impact wrench. Ended up having to use vice grips on the strut to hold it still while I hit it with the impact wrench. Worked great.

Cass944

vice grips on shock cylinder will sometimes work... but only if your not reusing the strut. otherwise it will gouge nasty marks in it.

KuHL 951

I loosen it with an air impact when the car is on the ground. The top strut collar will be loose before the nut reaches the end of the shaft. If you have an early car you can do the strut inserts without even removing the strut. Took me just over an hour to do both. No spring compressor required at all and the alignment isn't effected.

FRporscheman

Steve, I am eager to know how you did that. I just did the front struts on the '84, and I tried the method where you leave the two strut-knuckle bolts in. I couldn't get the top of the assembly to clear the fender so I had to remove the whole thing.

Dynamite, I went to the tool store and bought an offset box wrench. It looks like this:



Then I used an allen to hold the strut shaft from turning. On reassembly I had to use an adjustable wrench instead of an allen, since I replaced the Boge inserts with KYBs.

Nyx

dude, you take a 6mm allen key, put that in, and you take a big *** pair of vice grips, grab the appropriate 6 sided impact socket.. i think its a 21mm. Crab onto that, and counter your rotation with the allen key... and your done.

FRporscheman

That won't work with KYBs though.

On my '84 and my old '85 the nut size was 22mm.

Dynamite 76

The assemblies are off of the car (have two sets ). Spring compressor being used. I guess an electric impact wrench just does not have enough "impact" to break it loose. I'll get an offset wrench and use an allen wrench to hold the strut. But, how do I torque it to the proper spec, as there seems no way to do it with my torque wrench?

And what is up with the hypnographics that come with the KYB's?