stuck on front strut replacement

[madhaxor_3]

i've searched for a while now and cant find what i need to do. im putting HD's and eibachs all around but cant get either of the front struts out?

so far i've taken the springs off and dropped the mounts out. i guess i need to pull the sturts out of the sleeve but cant do it. i see a cap that screws on to where the strut goes in but cant seem to get it undone. is that even what needs to happen?

heres some pics. hope they help if im not describing it right.

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii132/madhaxor_3/bmw%20pics/CIMG0044.jpg

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii132/madhaxor_3/bmw%20pics/CIMG0041.jpg

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii132/madhaxor_3/bmw%20pics/CIMG0045.jpg

any help or reference to a thread would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Mark

[napa02]

Do you have the strut assembly out of the car yet? you need to do that first. Or is that what you are having trouble doing?. but yes that nut does need to come off to remove the cartridge. The more I think about it, I guess it's possible to swap cartridges with the strut assembly on the car, it is for sure the hard way to do it though...

[02hobiedave]

On mine i had it out of the car. I put the nut on the end of the strut shaft with washers and used an old front hub and slid it back and forth until it came out. of course unscrew the top retainer. mine was rusted in so it took some persuasion. good luck.

Dave

[JasonBird]

I took mine out a few weeks ago and that cap was very very stuck on. Mine had been changed previously and the cap had notches to turn with a C spanner. Do your new shocks include new caps.

If you use heat do it very carefully and very localized. I may be right or wrong here but I cant imagine heat and pressurized shocks mix very well!

I am open to comments on this,

Jason

[tjones02]

Yes, you need a large pair of channel lock pliers to remove that cap...

http://www.channellock.com/acb/stores/1/460_-_16_inch_Tongue_and_Groov_P21C3.cfm

[madhaxor_3]

cool, i have those channel locks. i just got off the phone with a friend and he said take them to a machine shop and they will get them out with no damage, now if there is a machine shop open on sunday i dont know. ill try the channels and hopefully the 3 days of soak in WD40 and all kinds of other unstickems will have helped. ill back back if it doesnt work.

[JohnN]

(nt)

[02for2]

+1 on a long pipe wrench.

Have you checked the new shocks? They often come with a new nut for the strut (in the case of Bilsteins because the rod is thicker and the OEM strut nut won't work) which means it doesn't matter if you maul the old ones to get them off, IIRC, this is how the new Bilstein HDs come. I swapped mine out a couple months ago and it seems I didn't reuse the old sleeve nuts, just clamped the strut in a vice and had at it with the pipe wrench.

Cheers!

[02Les]

+1 on the pipe wrench. Bought an 18" from Northern Tool for around $15 and it came undone easy.

I did it on the car; getting the wrench between the spring coils can be entertaining.

[madhaxor_3]

ok so i got called into work, but im back now. got out the "super friendly" pipe wrench and one side is off now. took about 3min and 5 good smacks with a hammer on the end of the wrench. thanks all for the suggestions. ceck my project blog for pics soon. next up efi/megasquirt install.