Kevin Lang
Well-Known Member
I used a nut splitter to smash the rusted shock nut off of my front passenger shock.
The thing was a "one time use only" tool, for while it split the nut, the shaft with the bolt & chisel broke. Inspecting the pieces, I found that the bolt and the chisel were 2 separate pieces of metal cheaply welded together, and that the bolt shaft was basically hollow (So in the defense of the Chinese guy who made it, there wasn't much to weld the chisel on to--sarcasm).
The nut splitter also required vise grips to hold it in place (it kept riding up off the nut), an extended resting on the tire so that I could work outside of the wheelwell, and a 1/2" drive extended-length socket for torque. That wasn't mentioned on the box for this POS, luckily I had them lying around.
For the new shock, I used anti-seize on the threads of the top bolt of the shock (hopefully that works), and I tightened the top nut down until the shock shaft began to spin. I substituted poly bushings for the stock Rancho rubber ones, but the current tightness is not enough to bulge them out to the width of the washers. I'm not sure if I've taken the nut to the end of the threading on the bolt, but I may have. Do I need to crank them down further? I'll take the ST on a test drive and see.
So now I'm left with one rusted shock still on there, and a broken nut splitter, which means short of a VERY long time with a hacksaw, I'm not getting that sucker off. Maybe I need to finally give in and get a Dremel that can cut this stuff. Any recommendations?
The thing was a "one time use only" tool, for while it split the nut, the shaft with the bolt & chisel broke. Inspecting the pieces, I found that the bolt and the chisel were 2 separate pieces of metal cheaply welded together, and that the bolt shaft was basically hollow (So in the defense of the Chinese guy who made it, there wasn't much to weld the chisel on to--sarcasm).
The nut splitter also required vise grips to hold it in place (it kept riding up off the nut), an extended resting on the tire so that I could work outside of the wheelwell, and a 1/2" drive extended-length socket for torque. That wasn't mentioned on the box for this POS, luckily I had them lying around.
For the new shock, I used anti-seize on the threads of the top bolt of the shock (hopefully that works), and I tightened the top nut down until the shock shaft began to spin. I substituted poly bushings for the stock Rancho rubber ones, but the current tightness is not enough to bulge them out to the width of the washers. I'm not sure if I've taken the nut to the end of the threading on the bolt, but I may have. Do I need to crank them down further? I'll take the ST on a test drive and see.
So now I'm left with one rusted shock still on there, and a broken nut splitter, which means short of a VERY long time with a hacksaw, I'm not getting that sucker off. Maybe I need to finally give in and get a Dremel that can cut this stuff. Any recommendations?