Monday, November 15, 2010 - 10:04 am, by: Chris Smith(Smithter)
Hey all,
Trying to remove my gas struts for a re-gas but have hit a problem.. Can't get off the strut on the font, passenger side.
It's done up extremely tight and the metal is just too soft, no matter how hard I seem to get a grip on it, it will slip and start to strip the nut. To make things worse, my 12mm Spanner doesnt fit perfect and neither does the closest imperial spanner, so I'm forced to use a shifter.
Have already hit it with WD40 about 3 times.
I have been reccommended by a few people to use an oxy/blow torch, but as you can see from the pictures below, its extremely vlose to the paint (and the top one is pretty much inside the padding on the bonnet) so using a flame will damage my bonnet padding and my engine bay paint).
Sorry about bad pics, I will try and get some good ones tonight, these pictures were taken by the seller a few months ago. (Note: The pics are actually of the DRIVERS side, but its the same thing on the other side.. just reversed).
Monday, November 15, 2010 - 02:31 pm, by: David Grima(Maltezr)
Tom Richards wrote on Monday, November 15, 2010 - 10:39 am:
they are probally the same as the boot struts and have "locktight' applied at manufacture.
You need a good quality ring spanner that fits tightly. ask a mechanic to loosen it for you.
Using a shifter will totally #@ck it.
Tom is spot on, I replaced the boot struts with new ones that I bought last year and they are extremely hard to get off cause of the loctite they put on from factory.....and I presume that the bonnet ones would be excactly the same..... indeed use "ONLY" a good quality ring spanner otherwise you will strip the crap out of it.
Monday, November 15, 2010 - 02:41 pm, by: Chris Smith(Smithter)
Well as I said, a ring wont get around it.
I currently have Kingchrome spanners and tools, I am told these are of high quality.
The boot ones were easy to get off for me, no troubles at all. As was the bottom of the drivers side. The rest is a different story.
Pictures are here: http://s20.photobucket.com/albums/b227/smithter/V8%20and%20Bikes%20plus%20Soarer%20Gas%20Strut/ (Ignore the races and mrs, was in a rush back to work!)
Monday, November 15, 2010 - 04:31 pm, by: Mike Bradberry(Halflife)
If the worst comes to the worst, you could grab hold with vice grips and gradually move forward and backward until it loosens. A good quality shifter is good as well because the area it holds is greater than the equivalent open ended spanner.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010 - 05:04 am, by: Lynden Phillips(Malicia)
I had the same problem with mine the other week, there was no O-ring to just pop them off. I had to soak the nut with WD40 multiple times before they would budge.
even went to the strut place and he couldn't get them off.
Thursday, November 18, 2010 - 07:41 pm, by: Adam Lonergan(Alchemistal)
Get another one off a wreck and have it regassed... Daniel Savage has enough cars to try a few until he gets one to come off without damage. Take a drill and use a 3 mm drill bit drill out the centre of the bolt on your car without damaging the thread... try to undo it... use a 3.5 mm drill bit... try to undo it...etc.
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