Help me? (X-body content)

Plan for the day was to replace the front shocks, maybe chop a little spring off of each side while I'm at it, then new plugs and wires, plus an oil change.

I'm stuck at replacing the first shock.

How the berkeley am I supposed to keep the inner part from turning with the bolt?
Nevermind how I'm supposed to cinch everything down in the unlikely circumstance that I get to the point of installing the new shock.

I can barely fit a wrench in from the side, and my attempts to hold the inner part still from above have been... unsuccessful
.

Second pic shows the 'progress' I've made so far.

Good news is that even with two cars undrivable, I've still got the ol' miata up and running.
for now.

Your local parts store should have a shock tool for this, here is an example on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Lisle-20400-Universal-Shock-Absorber/dp/B000CO88C6

That... makes a lot of sense.

I'll bug you guys later when I berkeley up another simple task.

Next time on Snow almost throws in the towel: something involving spark plugs

I've never had success with that tool. The tip of the shock just twists off.

Most shops just grab the oxy torch and blast off the nut and end of the stem.

My way is to put a socket and looong extension on it. Lever back and forth until the stem snaps. Sometimes there is room for a cut off wheel. Impact gun may work, but don't bet on it.

Two cheaper ways. Put a socket and long extension on the nut. Push it back and forth until the rod snaps. It is fairly easy in rust states. Or slide a vice grip through the spring on the shaft When you put the new one in they should be tight enough that the nut will tighten without the shaft spinning.

You're braver than I- that's an X-body lol... those frighten me.

Wally wrote: Two cheaper ways. Put a socket and long extension on the nut. Push it back and forth until the rod snaps. It is fairly easy in rust states.

This. I've done literally hundreds of them this way.

Nobody in town had the fancy socket guy.
Drove 20 miles to buy the nearest one.
Got home, it doesn't fit.
(slightly too narrow)
berkeley my life.

Double offset wrench, or maybe a crow foot, and vise grips.

Shotgun?

Nuke it from orbit as it is the only way to be sure!

Tried vice grips, can only get them in in line with the shaft, don't have the leverage to keep it from spinning.

Regarding just snapping it, this car is remarkably rust free.
Plus, doesn't help when I'm putting the new shocks on.
(since they are also not directly compatible with this tool, I'm going to have to file down the top enough that it fits in the slot)

In reply to SnowMongoose:

Hold vise grips with vise grips, duh.

Kenny_McCormic wrote: In reply to SnowMongoose: Hold vise grips with vise grips, duh.

I'll try that again.
Very close to plan b: getting E36 M3faced

You don't need a fancy socket. Just put the appropriate sized deep socket over it with an extension and rock it back and forth until if breaks. If it doesn't work you're doing it wrong.

Big shocker, rocking it back and forth didn't work like it was supposed to, nothing broke.
Further proof I can berkeley anything up if I put my mind to it.

What rocking it DID do was loosen the interface between shaft and nut, at which point the vice grip doubleteam was just barely able to tease the nut off.

Voila, all it took was 4 hours and I've got one corner done.

Now we'll see if I can calm down enough to do anything else automotive today.

There's also always the option of using the acetylene torch to make a cheap wrench into a custom wrench.

Took a shot at the other side, was going smoothly, until I went to remove the second lower bolt...

the little clippy guy that holds the nut in place, she broke.
I don't even know how to describe it, so it's good that the other one is intact.
Now I get to see if anyone within ten miles has one.

I realized that my problem is being hopeful that something might go smoothly.
If I expect everything to hit the fan, it'll go fine.
Too bad the anticipation of terrible times is often enough to keep me from attempting to wrench.

In reply to SnowMongoose:

You did it wrong. I've done that hundreds of times and never failed to break it. Sorry it didn't work for you.

All's well that ends well, right?

Good thing I started at sun up, since it just set as I drove her around the block.
berkeley this car.

The clip on nut dealy thingy is readily available at most parts stores. Look in the Dorman/Help! aisle.

In the future, another thing to try is to put an impact socket on it and just keep spinning it. On most shocks, those shafts are threaded into the piston inside the shock body. After a while, it usually spins out of the piston allowing you to remove the shaft entirely.

It makes a smelly mess when it finally pops out, but it does the trick

I'm honestly confused about this socket-rocking damper breaking method. If somebody took a video the next time they do this and put it in the tech tips forum, that would be extremely helpful! I've never been impressed with the oval-tip on the rusty shaft design, and every car seems to have some unique access constraints. The tools linked above are interesting, but I can only imagine with a rusted nut/shaft assembly, they'll be futile. If it's not rusted, the impact gets the job done anyway, so then of course you don't need a special tool.

Bryce

Nashco wrote: I'm honestly confused about this socket-rocking damper breaking method. If somebody took a video the next time they do this and put it in the tech tips forum, that would be extremely helpful! I've never been impressed with the oval-tip on the rusty shaft design, and every car seems to have some unique access constraints. The tools linked above are interesting, but I can only imagine with a rusted nut/shaft assembly, they'll be futile. If it's not rusted, the impact gets the job done anyway, so then of course you don't need a special tool. Bryce

you just use the socket and extension to get leverage to snap the shaft and nut off. a nice tight fitting socket works the best.. it aint rocket surgery- i actually "invented" this method on my own when i was about 15 years old and was shocked and a little dismayed when i got on teh internets and learned that it was the age old way of getting them apart...

regarding the nut clips in the lower control arm: i never use them... i just knock them out of the arm and put nuts on it and call it good... it's not hard once you figure out the angle to get the wrench in there..

you haven't even had fun yet unless you've done the rears already... it's awesome when the threaded clips break and spin and there is no way to get anything up there to get the bolt out- and i can almost guarantee that 3 of the 4 clips will spin... well, there is a way, but it's not very fun and every piece of dirt, rust, and gravel that is under the car will fall into your eyes while you do it.. again, i use nuts up there when putting it back together- it's one of those things that's easier to put together than take apart...

I usually use vice grips to break the end of the shaft off, never had a lot of luck with a socket. I did get lucky once and after splitting and driving out the rubber bits on the end of the shaft i was able to slip in a bolt cutter and snip the end right off. Took longer to get the tire off and back on than the shock.

I've also broke all of them off, either with vise grips or socket and extension.