I recently hit a large pothole in NYC which bent my front right strut. I ordered a new one from KYB (I replaced the entire suspension system myself a few months ago, so this was very frustrating) and when I went to remove the old I found out that the strut mount insulator also broke. As a result I can't remove the strut piston nut, because the whole piston also spins. How can I remove the piston nut?, anyone else have this problem before?

 

Haven't had this problem but you probably need to just remove the whole assembley (strut with spring attached and possibly compressed for more room) and put it in a vise along with a small pipe wrench and cheater bar to hold it while someone else unscrews the nut.

 

there's really no place to put a clamp or vice grip, can't really get a hold on the piston

 

Have you compressed the spring yet with spring compressors?

 

yeah, even still

 

No way to grab the piston at all? What about carefully cutting off the nut entirely (while compressed of course) and then replacing it?

 

Use an impact gun to get the nut off. Hold the piston with a vice grip plier, there's plenty of room to get the vice grip onto the piston.

If you hit a hole hard enough to bend the strut you definately bent the control are as well. At the body shop, we would also replace the hub and bearing on an impact like that.

 

The only other thing I can think of is if there is room to get a hack saw on trhe piston at all and saw it off while the spring is compressed, you have a replacement strut so basically you are just wanting the spring and a few other items that mount with it that you can't get off(strut bearings,etc). Good luck, if not try to get a quote for removal from a machine shop or something.