STILL getting that annoying rattling sound (gets worse by the day) and STILL trying to get the nut off the top of my strut so i can change my strut mounts. its been almost 2 weeks of trying to do this (i havnt tryed everyday though). ive tryed vise grips, ive tryed WD40ing the crap out of the bolt. ive tryed loosening the bolt with the wieght of the car still on it. ive tryed an impact gun. i just cant get that little F*cker to budge without the rod spinning too. it looks to me like the nut has reached the end of the threads. ANY advice is much appreciated. i would take it someplace but i really do NOT have money right now to spend. (since i just had to get 3 new tires and currently am unemployeed fresh out of college). pepboys quoted me at $100 just for labor, even if i take the whole assembly out of the car and bring it to them. F that. i payed $70 for parts. plus it really shouldnt be more than 1hr-1hr30 labor with the assembly in the car still. and $100/hr for pepboys? no thanks.

oh and i found this when i searched:

so i have a pretty good feeling that it is actually my mount that needs to be replaced and this whole thing isnt just a shot in the dark lol. oh and they were talking about torqueing the bolt to spec in that thread, thats why he said short blasts will get the nut tight.

edit: and if it matters, the impact gun i used was electric. yea, electric...as in powered by batteries(they were fully charged). ive never seen one before but my brother had it. seemed pretty powerful...but not quite as powerful as and air one.

 

Find someone with a decent air impact setup and the nut will be loose in seconds.

 

compress the spring. use a wrench to turn the nut. use a vise of vise grips to clamp the top portion of the strut. PBlaster it ahead of time to break corrosion.

 

well, i did have one younger kid at pepboys try to loosen it a bit for me with an air impact gun before this older guy came over and b*tched. so im not sure as to whether that would work but i will deff try it.

theres not really much corrosion. ill try it though. ill have to go buy some PBlaster tomorow though, that stuff works wonders. i tryed vicing the bottem of the strut and using a rachet on the top (since i need to save the strut.) and that didnt work. kinda the same thing as what you said. but hey, at this point ill try anything any everything. if some guy told me to **** on it to break it loose, hell...i might even do that.

 

Agreed. Compress the spring and/or lift the car to take the load off the mount. High speed impact to loosen the strut. Rubber food jar grips or Sears plier grips to grab the piston. I can't see the OEM mounts in my mind but can you wedge a screwdriver into the mount notch to help it stop spinning? Lastly you could Dremmel cut the nut off the top (again ONLY after compressing the spring and taking ALL the load off it). I cannot be held responsible for Dremmel bit's or your nuts flying off.

 

hahaha...

anyway...i think i will try to get my hands on a good impact gun. i think my friends dad has one so ill ask him about it. dont know off hand about wedging the screwdriver in there, but ill check that out. if i still cant get it i may just have to dremmel the nut off like u said. i actually never thought of that. seems like a good idea, just gotta make sure that sucker is compressed good before attempting. (& i already have an extra nut too )

 

To give the center shaft a better chance of not moving, I used a short section of rubber hose that I wrapped around the shaft and then gripped the rubber and the piston with vice grips. If you do this right, you can losen the top nut with a socket wrench.

If that does not work, ask around in your regional forum to see if someone can hit it with an impact wrench, or, if you can get the whole assebly off of the car, take it to a mom-and-pop garage. Offer some guy $10 to hit it with the impact gun. Just make sure that the spring compressors are on there before you go.

 

that is also a good idea. i charged the battery of the 'electric' impact gun last night to make sure they actually were fully charged. im gunna try that again. if that still doesnt work ill start trying all the ideas you guys have listed. thanks for the replies!

 

woohoo! got the nut off! but uhh...everything else is still stuck on there? lol....im gunna go try to give it a few tap tap taparoo's with a rubber mallet...unless anyone has any better ideas? (dont worry, spring compressers are on there good.)

 

You should be able to whack it w/ a mallet and remove the whole top assembly, as long as the compressors are still on there. Just keep everything in the right order.

 

yea i got it off by wedging a screw driver in there! replaced the little bearing and mount and put it all back together and in car. no more rattling from the passanger side! now either tomorow or friday its time for the drivers side to be done!

 

ok one more question....my springs are squeaking while i drive...is there anything i can buy (maybe like a spray lube type deal) that will eliminate the squeak? thanks guys! appreciate the help!

 

Do you have those little rubber isolator things (the thing that wraps around the spring) on them? I had some noise when I first installed my suspension, and it was because I forgot to put one of them back on heh.

 

yep i do! still squeaks though?

 

Check those things and be sure they aren't rubbed thru. If they are, you'll get squeaking.

Replace them with that plastic spiral wrap made for bundling wires. You can get plenty of it at radio shack for a few bucks. Nissan doesn't sell the wraps separately.

Dave