is there a special to tool to get the top nut on the front struts of a 2000 cavy off? The 2000 has a ridge around the nut, my 96 is flat.
The center bolt needs to held in place while the nut is taken off.
try loosening (DON'T TAKE IT OFF) the top nut while the car is on the ground and there's weight on it
impact wrench. some people have also tried using a C-clamp or something similar in between the coils to hold the piston while then turning the top nut.
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- Sold my beloved J in April 2010 -
a socket and a wrench works good. use the wrench to hold it below the nut and the socket to take the nut off. thats how me and my buddy do our suspensions
^ that will not work with 00+ mounts
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- Sold my beloved J in April 2010 -
I found a tool that will do it on northernautoparts.com. it was only 8 bucks!
Get a freakin spring compressor, get an impact and zip it off. done. As for putting it back on. Spray some penatrating oil on there like tri-flo and zipt that on too. done
word.
Spring compressor i have won't compress the spring enough to allow me to puch the strut bearing down to use a wrench and socket. Oh, and Chris you make no sense.
1) There is a special tool for it - check around auto stores. Basically it extends the top of the shaft and the nut so you can get at them with two wrenches. Unfortunately this only works for oem-style struts (won't work on adjustables like Koni).
2) Sometimes you can losen it with a breaker bar when the car is on the ground (use quick thrusts). If this works, just back it off so the nut is hanging by the last couple threads, then you should be able to get it off easily after you take it out of the car and compress the spring.
3) You can compress the spring and zip the nut off with an impact wrench, but you can't put it back on that way unless it's someone elses car.
I suggest you replace those mounts with the pre-2000 style afterwards. You will need the 99 mount (from any auto store) and the spring seat from GM (search for part #). I swaped to them recently and find them much better quality and they don't have this top nut clearance issue.
- Ken
'99 Z24, Manual
