Well, the scissor splitter did the job, just!
It barely fitted on the rod far enough to also press down on the tapered bolt, and there was hardly any thread left at all on the bolt you wind down, so it was a close run thing.
The end of the damper flew up in the air accompanied by an almighty bang, louder than most ball joints I've ever encountered, so it was in there rather tight.
Decided to change the cap rotor arm and leads while I was at it this afternoon - Word of warning, those leads seem to melt themselves onto the plugs after this long, that was fun getting them off. And the cap contacts were heavily corroded, the rotor arm was very pitted (presumably burned away going by the marks) - All on a car with less than 50k on the clock at 5 years old. The recommended service interval for the cap and arm is 60k, IIRC...