cditrani

I'm having a really hard time breaking the top nuts on my factory front shocks. I've bathed them in Liquid Wrench a couple times a day for nearly a week. I've heated cycled them with a torch. Even with two 10" ViseGrips on the piston rod as tight as I could get them, the rod spins before the nut breaks loose. There isn't enough room to get a full-size impact wrench on them, but I've had my butterfly on them and it just spins the rod in the ViseGrips. Any suggestions (this is a 2WD)?

All it would take to make this easy is a simple pair opposed flat surfaces on the piston rod so you could get a wrench on it. Cheap Bastards (and the new Bilsteins aren't any better in this regard). Now I'm driving around with scored piston rods and melted top bushings. Those tired shocks are working really well...

phox_mulder

If you've done all that, I think your only chance is a nut splitter.


phox

Amos

What we used to do was either torch the shaft so that the shock comes apart in 2 halves

OR

Use a 1/2" drive deep well socket/ratchet and use them to bend the shock where the top mounting nut is until it breaks. You sort of make a circular motion and twist the shaft while bending it at the same time. The threads allow a crack to develop rather quickly and the shaft just twists off.

Granted this was typically done on GM's mainly 60's-70's Chevelles and Skylarks but should work basically the same for you. You might have to put a vice grips on the shaft inside of the coil spring so that the frame or inner fender prevents the shock from spinning. Hope this helps, but disregard if I'm way off as I have a 4X4.

Amos

Another thought is to maybe use a sawzall to cut the shock shaft to get it to come apart in 2 pieces. Your new shocks should come with al new hardware so that's not a problem.

Shovelhead

I'll second vote for the the sawzall.

cditrani

Sawzall or torch doesn't buy me anything. There's a collar at the top of the shaft before the first bushing. There's no room to get anything in there to cut it. Also can't get a nut splitter in from the top; no room.

If I had welding equipment I could weld a bar to it to stop it from turning.

BigBlue

On my shocks there was a litte hex shape on the top of the shaft. I just used a open ended wrench to turn the nut and a socket to hold the hex part. Maybe try and undo the bottom and push the shock to one side and see if you can't put the shaft in a bind or something.

crobtex

What BigBlue said. I got the wrench on mine.

Shovelhead

On my old '90 gasser, I cut the shock shaft using the hack saw between the spring coils.

P.O.R.

how about a die grinder or dremmel tool ,cut off wheel on a 4.5 inch grinder, does the shock tower come off like on a 4x4, then you could deal with it out of the truck..

Mopar1973man

I've done that and then stuck the tip of the shock shaft in a table vise then spun the nut off...

My new shocks have the hex on the top and bottom of the cushions... Made it nice for reinstalling...

cditrani

2WD, the top of the shock is mounted to a bigger piece of the suspension that doesn't come off easily. The shocks themselves would be a piece of cake to change since they are not inside the spring, if only the top nut could be easily broken.

I'm going to try the dremel tool. I don't think I could fit a cut-off wheel in there.

Thanks for the tips guys.

John Faughn

I got a tool from MAC tools it comes from other also ,that screws on to the threads of shaft over the nut then a bar screws into that tool at a right angle you grab the bar and swing it up and down just a few times and brakes the shaft just below the nut and the shock will drop out, the problum here is you have probubley messed up the theads by now, cutting torch and keep the water hose handy, I had to wright about this even though you cannt use it now becouse in 30 years I havnt seen a better way to deal with top nuts and I have faught with all the other ways metioned here.

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94 cummins 2500 4x4 A.T.SLT ,got off this site 3 wks ago

Lil Dog

Thats how I always do those shocks is with a nut splitter. I did both of my shocks in less than an hour using the nut splitter. I didn't even bother wrenching on the nuts at all. Are you thinking of the same device? Just a cast loop big enough to go over the nut, then a threaded chisel inside that you use a 1/2" wrench on to press the chisel into the nut.

I didn't have any problem accessing the top of the towers. You may have to move some small stuff to get at the top, like the air box and inlet to the turbo for the passenger side, but the drivers wasn't that bad either..

J-eh

Shovelhead

For those not familiar with these this is a nut splitter: