We have all the **** away from the car, but that top little screw/nut/bolt, whatever it is, is rusted like a mother. we have been trying for an hour to get it off with the air toold, and its sooo damn close, but wont come off. We are now going to go rent a spring compressor to relive the tension, anyone know if this should work, or any other ideas?

 

i had to saw my shocks in half....put the piston into a vice grip.....then put the ratchet on the nut and then use a 5 foot cheater bar (pipe over ratchet end) and it FINALLY came off...we had been working at that BS for over an hour

 

there should be a center hex on the bolt that you put an allen wrench in. That way you can stabilize the strut while you turn the nut.....HTH

 

If these are stock springs/shocks, I REALLY hope you're using a spring compressor.

 

Yes, a spring compressor will help you get the nut off the shock. You use the spring compressor to take the tension off of the nut b/c that tension makes it that much harder to break teh nut loose...it's already hard enough with the loctite that they use on there. After you take sufficient tension off of the spring hat, use a 5mm hex wrench with a 14mm closed-end box wrench to take off the nut. Set the shock on the floor and use your foot to hold the 5mm hex wrench and the bottom half of the shock down to the floor. Then, use the 14mm closed-end box wrench and break teh nut loose by using a quick and forceful motion to break the nut loose.

See if that works. Otherwise, an impact wrench will take care of it quick and easy.

 

OH MY

if these are stock springs you are trying to get off.

PLEASE PLEASE get a compressor. With out a compressor, one u get the nut off, it will shoot with great force, and can do massive harm.

BE SAFE! get a compressor

ALSO, u need a wrench and an allen wrench to take the topp bolt off........

 

OH GOD, DON'T DO THAT. GET A COMPRESSOR OR YOU'LL HURT YOURSELF

 

No lie. I've heard of people being killed by flying springs...

 

I'd pay serious attention to these guys... there's enough force in compressed stock springs to shatter a cinder block. I know cause I've seen it!

 

PLEASE GET A SPRING COMPRESSOR....THOSE THINGS ARE TICKING TIME BOMBS WITHOUT ONE!

Also, be careful not to strip that Hex head on top....I stripped mine on both of the rears and had to dremel cut the entire fuggin nut off of both of them! it sucked and I totally destroyed the threads on the shocks doing it....now they're garbage!
Good Luck!

 

we were doing a friends car.....the spring compressor was somehow defective (we were using it right, we'd done it like 10 times before) and he was loosening the bolts on the compressor, 10 turns each side when all of a sudden one let loose breaking the other off at the same time and the spring smacked him in the leg in sort of a spinning motion...he had a HUGE welt! ....another time one of my friends was doing it himself and the spring compressor kinda bent the threads from so much force (it was an accord spring) and i had to throw it as hard as i could out in his backyard at a tree to get the compressors off "safely" if we had tried to do it with a ratchet we most certainly wouldve been injured......so i threw it, it hit the tree...the compressor came loose and the spring shot into the ground, i was far enough away that it couldnt have hit me...but damn it still sucked.

 

That's why I say just take all the struts to a shop with a compressor and let them decompress it for you. It's like 40 dollars or less for all 4 shocks. Those compressors are such a bitch, I personally have better things to do than mess around with them.

Another thing you could do is place both ends of the shock assembly between cinder blocks, have one person step on the assembly to hold it in place and then use a ratchet and long tube to slowly release the nut. This worked on my brother's accord, for some reason we didn't have to use a hex wrench to hold the threaded section in place. Be sure to place something over the strut while your doig this to prevent any flying parts from hitting you.

 

You can rent one anywhere with a parts counter. I got one at pep boys and once you return it in good shape, they refund all your money. Not a bad deal, they are a pain in the *** though. I would have paid $40 to have a shop do it real quick if I had know that was an option.

 

http://www.harborfreight.com has a spring compressor for 10 bucks.. it's easier to use than the kind from pepboys IMO.

 

I just lowered my friends accord without a spring compressor, and I did the rears first, my brother holding the spring and myself, holding the allen wrench and loosening the nut with the wrench, no caution,(not thinking) well the rears came off really easy, no popping and not really compressed all that much. So I start the first front the same way, my bro has the spring in his hand, the base of the strut is up against a corner in the garage, and I have the damn spring facing directly at my face, in my youth I forgot that they are stock compressed springs. I got it loose and proceeded to remove the nut completely and it poppped so hard, the spring broke my index finger, and hit me strait between the eyes, right above the nose, I brused my bone above my left eye, and it cut my head where it hit me and blood just gushed out, I put ice on it so fast that it stopped bleeding real quick, and took 3 excedrin, I felt so stupid, and it hurt so bad, I was really hard for me to get up and do the other one, but it could have been alot worse, I could have broke my nose, literally put an eye out, or even be knocked completely out, and gotten a concussion. I was really lucky, and I still have a small cut on my forhead. this just happened last weekend, so get a spring compressor.

 

Wow, you really are fortunate, because like I said before, I've seen a spring shatter a cinderblock, let alone a human skull. That's why it really is sad that they even sell those things called spring compressors, which barely work in the first place.