I'm looking for a decent universal strut nut remover. Has anyone used them for the rear struts and if so, how does it work?

 

Air tools??? I haven't encoutered a bolt or nut on my Maxima that has required anything more than a little penetrating oil and an 18" breaker. Air tools would definately speed up things, but I don't think it's necessary. All the suspension parts can be removed using standard and deep sockets with a breaker bar (if needed). This is assuming some shop hasn't worked on your car and torqued the bolts and nuts to some ungodly amount.


Dave

 

air tools make it easy, but I haven't found a bolt that I couldn't remove by hand.
most of the time the really tight ones I still have to remove by hand- even with an impact that's supposed to have 600ft-lb of reverse torque.

 

My stock rear strut nuts were pretty bad but I haven't tried taking my KYB's apart yet. I used an air tool to put them on and the bolt is on there pretty good.

The reason I'm looking into this is because the rear pistons rotate with the bolt unless you hold them with vise grips which is a no no for struts that are going to be reused.

 

Deezo, grip the flat nub on top of the shock with a med. size adjustable wrench and put a 14mm box on the nut. Lay it on the floor, put your foot on the wrench against the floor so it wount move and break the nut loose. Works for me every time.

WD-40 is your friend, the nut will come right off. The jaws on the adjustable wrench are flat & holds tight. It also doesn't damage that little top nub on the shock like a vice grip does.

 

Many of us (Canadians, snow-belt regions, etc) where there's freakish salt deployment from November to March often have MUCH more rusted bolts and nuts to deal with.

 

...and we get most of the stuff you guys get in Canada here in MA. My stock struts were bad.

Thanks Tom. At least now I don't have to buy anything extra to do this.

 

Get a 1/2" drive breaker bar (usually 18") and then buy a 3' pipe. If anything is too hard to get off using the 18" bar, you can put the pipe on it and double your torque. Assuming you weigh 150lbs you could apply 450lbs of torque on a bolt, which should be much more than you'd ever need to break one loose.

 

Thanks guys!

 

Nealoc187, that's assuming you can fit a breaker in there. Often, a stuck nut/bolt can't be accessed by a long breaker, of if it can be accessed, gives almost no space for rotating.

 

njmaxseltd, this is exactly the kind of advice I was looking for in the 5th Gen forums last week for doing struts. I will have to get a quality crescent wrench and some box wrenches and use this method when I do my struts

 

Same technique I use, but man o man, I sheared off the top of the strut piston this way. Too rusty.

But air tools are a great time saver, man I wish I had some.

 

I've had air tools for alittle over a year, but I havent started using them until a few weeks ago. I'm just used to not using them. They are faster but like Matt said, there hasn't been a bolt on these cars I haven't been able to get off by hand, but it is nice to use air tools, just makes things easier.

Also a trick for a breaker bar, use your jack handle

 

I actually have the Gorilla bar so I won't have to use a breaker bar when neccessary.