I was installing my FSTB today and i easily took off the first 5 nuts on the towers, 3 on the first and 2 on the second. I got to the last and it was taking a lot more pressure than the other 5 took... I Finally braced myself against the car and pulled as hard as i could. Stripped it beyond any repairable means. It's a giant donut now. I tried pliars vice grips, you name it and it wont budge. Any further attempts just peels off layers of the soft metal.

I was told that a nut splitter would be the best bet, but these nuts have their own base which is where the thread starts. Anyone have any ideas? this is frustrating.

 

Nut splitter is a good start. Then just dremel it off. use a combination of the cutting blade and a grinding wheel. Try to bend it off a screwdriver, too. OR you can grind two sides flat, PB blaster the bad boy and then try to work it off. If you damage the threads just get the right sized die.

 

Just be very careful, that stud would be a PITA to replace (just wayyy more work than necessary for a FSTB install). On my old black 93 max I had the same problem. Ended up using a smaller socket and hammered it on then used an impact wrench and zipped it off. You might have to use a Dremel or some other type of tool to shave down/into shape abit more . Find a replacement nut before hand though, save yourself some headache.

 

go get a EZ off nut remover. you hammer it in and get an air gun or a breaker bar and yank it off. be careful of that stud...like what mr gone said..once that breaks you have to drop your strut. also before you do all this get a new nut from the dealer...if you messed up any of the others get a few more.

also verify you're using metric sockets...and stay away from the cheap foreign overseas made sockets.

 

a few options:
1. Big *** visegrips
2. weld on a socket
3. very carefully torch it off
4. cut the whole friggin' thing apart and replace the strut mount (most expensive/hardest option)

 

oh yeah, also stay from 12 point sockets

 

Yes. A nut splitter is the best solution fight those bad boys. Pepboys has it for $10. If you could find a nut replacement for it, make sure it's grade 8 material and preferably metric....gotta becareful here cut most hardware stores only carry SAE for grade 8 and its thread distance are not the same as metric. I know to the naked eyes, it looks similiar but if you force it on, SAE just won't make it.

In regards to the stock nuts base, the base is actually a washer built into the nut...just to simplify life complication that's all. So when you found yourself the right nut, make sure you pick up its corresponded washer as well.

btw, if anyone knew of a great place that carries grade 8 or higher nuts for the metric system. Please share your ideas here. I think it would be mad cool if we could post all of the sizes for various common nuts and bolts that tend to rust out and seriously needed replacement. So, that would save us plenties of time from stepping into hardware stores and raid their draws. While saving those innocents store employees from sorting things out afterward.