I've got the spring and shock assembly out, and the spring is compressed. The nut on top of the shock, holding it to the mount was rusted to ****, so I had to grind it off. Only it still won't come off. So thinking it's seized on the "sleeve" (upper mount), I started to drill it out...still nothing.

I'd like to try to get this finished tonight, and I can't go any further till I figure this out. Any help it greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Dave

 

If I were you, I'd do it the easy way and take the whole strut assembly to Pep Boys and have them disassemble and reassemble it. I ran into the same problem that you're having and I finally broke down and had them do it. Best $40 you'll ever spend (that covers both struts), as far as saving yourself some frustration goes.

 

Thanks Jeff, I might have to do that. I just can't believe how much of a PITA this is, considering it only took me about 20mins to get the assembly out.

I've got the shaft of the shock drilled out about 1/2" into the mount, and it still won't break free...kinda makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong?!?!?

Dave

 

With the way those struts are designed, I'm not surprised that it's not coming apart for you. They're very good at holding whatever water that manages to get down in there, so everything gets frozen up pretty badly. The Pep Boy guys weren't having a whole lot of fun getting mine apart...even with a hydraulic press, they still spent a lot of time whacking the strut around with a very, very large hammer to get it to break free. Maybe that's what you're running into too.

 

I work at a shop, and man mine was a pain in the ***, was trying everything. Finally after an hour I got them to come off with using a cut off wheel! Man, I recommend replacing your bearing plates.

 

Thanks guys. I'm about to try Round 2.

Dave

 

Actually since the shock is ruined already... it is very easy to take a hack saw and cut the top of the shock between the hardened steel and the bolt part.

This is very soft metal and will cut in a matter of seconds with a good saw.

It is a little tricky getting the saw in the spot, but I took the blade off of mine and reassembled it with the blade between the coils on the springs.

 

Damn, I just did mine last weekend with no problems. One of the nuts was a little rusty, but I just but needle nose vise grips on the shaft to keep it from spinning. After the nuts came off, the strut came out with a little tapping of a hammer. I guess I must have got lucky or something Good luck.

 

I just did mine...
I took mine to the shop... And it was the best 40 bucks i ever spent.
mine was rusted to hell. Its a lot safer to have a shop do it. I dont know if the crappy autozone compressors would have done the job.

 

Just hit it with a good impact wrench, and it'll come right off. I had the same problem, and tried everything know to man, and used extremely high levels of force with no luck. It takes the shocking power of the impact to loosen them up sometime.

 

I had the same problem last week.....

I ended cutting off the rusted nuts with a cutting wheel and the rubberized mount on one side was rusted to the shock....no nut and IT STILL WOULDN"T COME OFF!

After messing with it forever, I decided to slowly release the spring compressor thinking that would push it off.......WRONG! It ripped the metal sleeve right out of the rubber mount. Chevy wanted $80 for a new one.....

Randy

 

I did mine fri night and one side went great and the other was a pita. The problem for me was that when I turned the nut the shaft broke above the nut so all I would do is spin. So out came the dremel and a cutting wheel. Try lots of Blaster on the whole assembly or use some heat on the bracket.

 

Round 2
Shock Assembly 0 Dave 1

I ended up using a hack saw just like how All Z Way mentioned. Then I took the mount and put it in a vise and beat the rest of the shaft out with a punch and sledge. The driver's side wasn't as bad, but I did need to grind the nut off that one too. Everything went back together great, and the fronts are done. Now onto the backs, which will prob. take longer to jack it up, then to swap 'em.

Dave

 

Since you now know how much of a pain in the *** it is to get those things apart, go back and smear a ton of grease on the tops of your front shocks (hopefully you can still get some down in there now that it's on). I did this to mine in hopes that the next time won't be such an ordeal...water shouldn't be able to get through that grease, so it can't rust anything together.

 

Couldn't agree more with that!!!! Trust me, before I reassembled it, I put some antiseeze all over the shaft. Hopefully I won't need to go back in there, but if I do, lets hope it's not such a PITA.

Dave