Rear Shock Removal

Doing my AAL instal now and am having trouble removing the rear shock. No matter what I do when trying to remove the top nut, it spins the nut and the center pin. I've tried using pliers to hold the center pice with no luck.

I've also PB blaseted it to help break loose but also no luck.

How do you keep it from spinnin?

 

I used vice grips

 

Put blaster on it n let it soak. Shoulda put a crescent wrench or a 6mm wrench on to hold it if possible. More than likely both of those will slip eventually n you'll need vice grips. Don't booger up the threads though. When all else fails, heat the nut

 

Not sure what shocks you have, stock TRD bilsteins have 2 flat spots on top of stud for an adjustable wrench. 5100's have an allen screw to hold ont it so it wont spin when turning nut

 

These are stock TRD Off Road shocks, so there is no spot for an allen wrench. I've soaked it pretty dang good with PB blaster, and cinched down the vice grips as much as possible and still no joy.

I can't hack it off as I'm intending to re-use the stock shocks.

 

What do you suggest to heat the nut? Unfortunately all I have access to is a hair dryer and I'm guessing that wouldn't do much.

 

I eventually got it with the vice grips, however when enough of the "head" wasn't showing anymore I moved the vice grips down to the sillver part of the shock. I know this isn't ideal but it was the only way I could get it loose. The other side seemed to go much smoother however. I'm not sure if this had anything to do with it, but i left the bottom pice of shock bolted in.

 

I ran into the same problem...not enough of the shaft showing at the top to put anything on it.
I finally got out a cutting wheel and split the nut.
Faster than anything else I tried.

 

i used a grinder and saws all...easy enough

 

Same here, I ended up cutting them off. I cut the stud though since they were just going in the trash. Very dumb set-up on the Bilstein HD's in my opinion. The Allen bolt on the 5100's is a much better set up.

 

If there are exposed rusty threads, I'll clean them up with a small wire wheel on the dremel. Then I PB it, tap it a few times and let sit for a while, then PB it again before attemping to remove it.

 

I was re-using the stock shocks so cutting was not an option. For whatever reason the passengers side went much smoother.

Total time for AAL on driver side was 4 hours including 3 trips to Lowes...
Total time for AAL on passengers side was 50 minutes...

 

I used chanel locks to hold the shaft from turning. I griped the shock about one inch from the top. You will able to feel were to grip then just grip and take the nut off.

 

Nice, good job man! Feels good huh? My stupid shocks did the same thing. The 5100s do have a better design at the top!