Yeah, some “mechanics” think tighter is better. They use impact guns with 86 gazillion foot-pounds of torque. Idjits.

The strict shaft is keyed in that you can use a metric Allen wrench to hold the shaft. You could then put the socket on the nut and use the vice grips to loosen the nut.

 

markus sent you PM about eonon stereo. did you see it? this site is totally screwed up right now hope they fix it. apparently they did a database migration and messed it all up.

 

Maybe a good time to buy a set like this? https://www.harborfreight.com/hand-....com/hand-tools/sockets-ratchets/21-pc-sae-metric-go-thru-socket-set-62305.html

 

I have not seen the pm from Marcus, thanks for the heads up!

I made my own socket for the strut nut by using an O2 socket, ground down the edge to fit within the mount @ nut and used an Allen (7mm) to no avail. If I out any more pressure on the Allen, I'm sure either the key slot would strip out or the Allen key would snap.

Going to try again later, if no progress will then put it in a vice and cut the shaft... Not going to be fun!

 

You can also drill down through the nut, endwise, with a small drill bit. If you do this
on 2 sides, the nut will be easy to split with a cold chisel. The shaft of the strut is
seriously surface- hardened, but the threads aren't, so drilling half in the nut,
half in the shaft works pretty well.

Whut I dun,

t

 

Assume you***8217;ve used penetrating oil and heat on the nut?

 

Mine came off easily, but I loosened them with the struts still on the car (not sure if that really made a difference). The major problem I had was getting the bolts on the new struts tight without an impact gun. The guy at Jiffy lube tightened them for me once with their impact gun, but I went back after making adjustments and a different employee refused to help me. That was a fun couple of weeks waiting for tools in the mail and having them not work out, and then figuring out I could use a socket held by vice grips and an allen wrench in the center to get them 'tight enough'. FML

 

 

ftw

 

Thank you everyone for your input. I managed to get the nut off with a lot of elbow grease. Took strut to my friends garage when he had a vice, worked the nut a while by tightening it back down, cleaning the threads, filing the top of shaft to a taper and using some ATF/Acetone & wire brush to lube and clean threads... It gave up begrudgingly!

I'll post pic later if socket I made... $14 Autozone special <img src="http://s1.E46Fanatics.com/forum/images/smilies/wink.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Wink" class="inlineimg" />

 

Managed to magyver this to torque the strut nut properly using my spark plug socket. Put in koni adjustable struts that had a mini hex head to hold the shaft instead of an Allen key slot due to the adjustment tab being in the middle.

Sent from my [device_name] using E46Fanatics mobile app

 

Here's the O2 sensor socket I ground down to work with the strut nut. Wrench used leaving end open for Allen key (in case that's not apparent)... Best thing is it can still be used for O2 sensors if need be