I'm trying to replace the strut inserts and springs on my '86 GLT. A friend has fabricated an iPD style tool for me (a bit of chop and welding on a 24mm socket!) to hold / undo the strut top nut.
However the top nut is amazingly tight! I've already broken a 10mm spanner trying to hold the shock absorber rod :-(
Are there any tricks to this, or is it just a case of plenty of brute force?
I hope you have got some really good spring compressor clamps, one of these nearly killed me once when the spring got loose.
The trick is to undo the nut with an air wrench.
mrcheerful
Yes, I've got some good spring compressors, and I *know* to treat them with respect!
When you say to use an air wrench, do you just rely on friction to hold the strut, or is there some other truck?
The high power of the air wrench typically will yank the nut loose, spinning it faster than the shock insert rod can spin without any need of any kind of hold on the insert to stop it from rotating.
I believe the fastening nut is one of those nylon locking nuts, so it shouldn't be rusted to the shock. If your custom tool lets you get to the fastening nut while you put your holding wrench on the top of the shock insert rod, then it should not be all that difficult. I would try to move the fastening nut counter-clockwise, holding the shock insert stationary, rather than the other way around, but I don't know if this matters.
As you are replacing the insert just grab the insert( " shock absorber rod ")with a pair of stillsons, no need to worry about damaging it as you are going to replace it anyway.
Or cut through the nut and it comes right off (in two or more pieces). The nylock nuts are one use anyway and as stated above, if you're replacing the strut anyway, no worries about damaging the rod.
Bill
Only way I've found to get these apart is with an impact wrench, if you know someone with an air compressor they might already have one, otherwise electric ones are available, though having never owned one I can't vouch for the functionality of the electric ones.
I actually bought a set of (indian made) offset ring spanners including a 24mm that fits the top bearing nut. Couldn't buy just the one spanner - only available in the set. :-(
To hold the top of the old struts, I got a friend to mill a slot in the end of a piece of hex bar so that the bar fitted over the end of the strut and another spanner fitted onto that... Very easy to undo the nut when you're effectively using one spanner to hold the strut and the other to undo the nut.
Then, after all of that effort, the Bilstein struts have a hex socket in the top, so an allen key is used for tightening...
I also bought the right C-spanner for the retainer ring that holds the insert into the strut before finding out that the Bilsteins come with their own special tool. :-( At least it made disassembly easy!
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