Gas strut not budging, any advice welcome.

[CharlieCroker]

Hi, this morning I have tried to remove my coilover gas strut and have compressed the sprong to release tension, no problem. However the bottom bolt on the hub that holds the strut ain't budging! Even with a litle gentle persaution the sod don't want to come out, it seems that the bush has no metal collet and is gripping the bolt with the force of satan! Any ideas how to remove it without damaging anything?

[andydclements]

I hope you don't have to go the route I did. It involved, but wasn't limited to, cutting through the bolt and bush both sides of the damper.

[mikeeech]

are you certain that you have released the spring? I was surprised howmuch it needed to compress by and still it was exherting force. backs were easier than the fronts since I could get the spring compressors equally spaced on the backside. The fronts would "bend" out therefore maintaining pressure.

[CharlieCroker]

Yes, the spring is flapping in the strut and there is plenty of movement up/down. You can hear the rubber grabbing at the bolt when I turn it, seems like there is no metal collet present. I tried a puller but that just turns and falls off under pressure. I don't want to damage the strut as they are good to sell on eBay. Is it possible to burn the thing out with a plumbers flame can?

[mikeeech]

So with the nut removed from the bolt and with the spring fully compressed you cannot get the lower bolt removed from the front shock abosorber where it fits into the lower mounting?

 

if you have to hit the end of the bolt make sure you put the nut back on sicne the hammer will damage the thread. the first one I took off was difficult but only because of the spring issue. I could still remove the bolt was alot of held from a hefty hammer but then it became obvious that the spring wasn't compressed properly. sorry I couldn;t be of more help.

[Sparky]

Yup, had to do the same as Clemo before.  Sometimes they simply won't.

[CharlieCroker]

It's on the rear, as it's such a long bolt it is refusing to move. One other thing I might try before I resort to cutting is using a hydraulic ram to push it out or a massive G-clamp to push it though. Would be nice to keep it intact, see what happens.

[andydclements]

I've not worked on an Eclat / Elite suspension but if it's as per this image http://rdent.com/manuals/elite_and_eclat/rear_suspension/da.htm then it appears you could de-mount the rear trailing arm, unot the hub carrier from the driveshaft and take the whole lot to the bench to work on. If you are then able to remove the hub carrier from the arm and strutt, I'd suggest drilling the rubber of the damper bush, so that you can attack the inner collet that has oxidised itself to the bolt.

[CharlieCroker]

Yes it is that image, bolt 22. I do need to get at the brake drums at some point, so may have to take it all apart anyway. All great advice lads, nice to know I'm not the only one with the issue.

[LOTUSPOINT]

If you open nut No 9, than you can pull out the front end of the radius arms - and than it SHOULD come out easily...

(Be careful, if the damper is not fixed on top and drive shaft is loose too - the whole rear suspension is coming downwards...)

[Paul Henning]

Hi all, I've just replaced the rears and had the same problem, the only thing I did differently was to decide to replace the bolts so I could really go to town and pound them out.

I found the rears difficult and had to replace a bent lower link, don't do both at the same time as I had a hell of a time re aligning both, I lost the through alignment and it took me two jack and brute force to get it back.

The could are tapered and I found that the compressors would foul as I compressed way more than I thought I'd need too , so sounds as though you have a way to go as yet.

Same on putting them back in, I compressed as much as I could to ensure clearance , the challenge I faced was that when you decompress the compressors themselves got snagged on the drive shaft.

All in all much trickier than I had imagined.

After much deliberation I've just started the fronts.... Advice here so far is at least the spring is not tapered so straight. I decided to de couple the front hub which allowed the strut and spring to slide out to the side. Fingers crossed that the reverse process is as easy......

[Paul Henning]

Should also have added I removed the upper wishbones too on the front.

[CharlieCroker]

Blimey, not as easy as it looks, yesterday I thought I would have all four off, not even got one halfway removed. Seems a bit of cutting will be involved here, if I decided to replace the bolts it may give me a little more freedom to bash the life out of the old ones! 

[CharlieCroker]

GET IN! Got the mudda fudda off, and all intact, no real damage done except the nut to the bolt looks a little worse for wear. Cleared under the area, that is moved all the shite that was getting in the way, tools and crap everywhere, moved the axle stand too get a proper swing at the bolt and with a mighty blow from the persauder it moved! So a few more swings and a massive screwdriver too knock the bolt out, then just a little fight to get the strutt off. Schweeet!