Just like the title says, I have no idea how im going to get the nut off the rear struts. Every time I try to get the nut off the part the threads are on spins with it (the brass cup in the pictures), so to try to combat that I've tried to use pliers to hold it still but its a pretty futile attempt, there's just not enough to grip onto with that. Any tricks on how I should do this? Is there a special tool I'm not aware of? Should I just remove them and bring them to a shop? ( I cant imagine them charging more than 20 bucks to decompress two shocks.) Thanks for the input any help is appreciated.
As a side note I've adequately compressed the spring, so that is not the issue.
--Alec

 

Impact gun!

 

Wait, so is whole shaft spinning or just that brass cup? The brass cup acts like a washer so if it spins, that's not a problem.

Are you using a wrench or an impact gun? I just blast that nut off with my electric impact. Well worth an investment.

 

impact it off. finished.

 

Nope no impact gun, honestly it wouldn't work anyway. I figured out a different way and got it. Since the whole shaft was spinning, along with the brass washer, I used my super pliers and just pinched the flat part at the top of the bolt point instead and used that for leverage to get the strut nut off. So success, bilstein hd's and swift spec-r's here I come!

 

dude, you're telling people who have done it that it can't be done? lol, why even ask

 

I'm saying I don't think an impact gun would have worked. Sure maybe it would have but guess what I'd rather not spend 300 dollars when my way worked. It wasn't a matter of force anyway it was a matter of backwards pressure, and along with that I wound up getting it off a different way and described it. Judging by your other posts you're just trolling.
So thanks again to the people here to help!

 

Next time, before you take the spring/strut out of the car, loosen the nut while it's still bolted to the car (with all the weight still on the wheels/tires), same goes for the fronts. If you know what you're doing, you don't need to rent those spring compressors. Hope this helps.

 

I just picked up a set from Harbor Freight, $13. No need to return them, either.



http://www.harborfreight.com/macpher...-set-3980.html

 

The first time I swapped springs I did not use an impact gun. First I loosened the nut while the strut was still on the Evo. Then I used a visegrip to lock the shaft and then a set of spring compressors rented from Autozone. That kept the nut from spinning while I loosened with a hand wrench.

 

It would have worked trust me and you dont need to buy one either. Just take the strut down to your local tyre shop and have them put their windy gun on it. Do the same when you want it tightened up again afterwards

 

haha, believe me I learned my lesson, for the other strut I made sure to loosen it first, its way easier. (Thanks though I would hope others would use some common sense and figure it out if they went through what I did.) and yes I did need the spring compressors. for the fronts I was being lazy and didn't go grab a set, when we re-set the car down (to use its own weight to compress the spring, we still couldn't get enough sag in the spring to allow us to get the nut on, to do it, we had to get four people on the front of the car, which was a bigger hassle than it was worth (thanks neighbors).

Also new question when I turn the wheel hard enough to the left there is a popping noise? any ideas what that may be from, it re-pops when i comes back to the right. Now I already got an alignment, but the springs seemed to have settled more, or something changed and the car has started pulling to the right, so I'm going back. But any thoughts on the popping, or pulling for that matter?

 

Did you torque the nut to the correct specs? If not you might have crushed your bearing in the strut mount...

 

Yes torqued to the correct specs. I'm back at the shop right now getting another alignment. I guess the right side was way out. My guess is the spring settled a little more throwing it out.

 

impact wrench, with pliers that have rubberized grip.