Nut stuck on top of shock

Ok I understand what you're doing now. Yeah, don't try to loosen the strut center nut with the spring off the truck or not under compression. Rocketship parts may ensue. I used a box wrench and wedged it against the fender liner for maximum leverage, then with my other box wrench I went to town until it broke loose.

 

I think the best answer was to somehow get through the boot so a vice grip can grab the shock rod to keep it from turning. But I'm open to all ideas except torching it or using flame in the wheel well.

 

Its kinda too thick of a rubber to cut through easily. Maybe you can heat up a knife or something else really hot and just melt through a section of the rubber and pull it out

 

And one more stupid question: why can't you grab the top of the shock rod again?

 

That's exactly what I am doing, however the nut jams up right at the top with almost nothing left for the box wrench to purchase. It's like a almost off.. I also thought if I could cut the rubber bumper thing off underneath the hat washer then I may be able to get small vice grip in there. I don't know.

 

I took mine apart today out of the truck and saw the nut is still threaded all the way up until about an 1/8 of an inch of the part to hold with a wrench was showing. Barely anything to hold onto.

 

Jack up those stands high AF and loosen the lower control arm it will swing out the way and is the easiest way to change coil[overs

 

If all else fails, hacksaw. I just had to do that today with a winch rebuild. Probably saved me a good hours worth of frustration.

 

I would saw sawzall if you can get it to fit in there

 

I just looked at the one Hitachi I took off the drivers side and the nut is still treaded with nothing left of the inner rod to grab. That's not a very clever design.

 

Oh that might be a little different. Mine were the older trd offroad bilsteins. Not sure if its the same

 

That's very different from my experience. My hitachis had a good 1/2" of unthreaded flat bar on top of the rod to grab onto. That's probably why I was so confused by your predicament.

 

It would take a while and the steel is probably pretty hard but I could probably grind off the threads enough to get the nut off, like make the nut come loose of the threads sooner while there is some flats showing above to put a wrench on.

 

Does anyone know if there is any rod travel left to pry up on the upper washer to get a skinny little vise grip in the gap onto the rod?

 

Don't think so. You'll be fighting the rubber fender on the underside of the hat. The fenders keep the rod from playing up/down in reference to that mounting point. Only way to get a grip is to chew off the top rubber.

 

Sawzall and you'd be done by now but have you checked the threads aren't buggered up? Can you get another nut started and use it to clean up the threads?


Edit: I said bolt and it's a nut

 

I could yes. Thanks

 

I had this issue and found a video that suggested using a vice. While I had the struts off the front this worked by tightening the vice onto the flat surface of the top of the shaft. So when doing the rears I exposed the shock stanchion and gripped it with the vice. First time posting so I'll see if I can upload the photo.

 

Use a nut splitter with an impact wrench. Had to do this with a friend's rear shock (he was trying to save the shock for resale), but the principle is the same with front shocks.

 

This. Don’t even bother with the top nut on the shock.

https://youtu.be/oC33zcI9mXY