front shocks stuck?

[meadan]

i just bought some cheapish replacement front shocks for my ae71, and im having some trouble getting the old ones out.
Now i have the whole strut off, but i still cant get the old strut insert out. Does anyone have any hints or tips to get it out?
If it doesnt come out i guess ill need to buy new struts becuase the old shock is totally dead.

adan

[keiichi]

my guess is your having trouble undoing the top hat thingy? or have you already done that and the insert wont come out?

[meadan]

yeah i forgot to mention, i got the top hat thingy off. the insert doesnt wanna come out, are there any other things which might be holding it in?

[keiichi]

so its an original oil shock or old replacement gas one? either way there shouldn't be anything else holding it in, just reef it out, or you can hit a hammer on the outside to break up any corrosion thats holding it in. what i would do though is put the chrome piston in a vice horizontal with some thread sticking out, put a nut all the way on and use the heavy part of the strut like a slide hammer and pull it towards you until it comes loose.

[Gilly]

if it is a pretty tight fit shock, rust could be holding it in place.

sounds weird but i was always told to "lube" the shock body with a light oil to prevent them rusting and seizing in the strut body. sort of just wipe them over.

too late for that now though http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/forums/emoticons/laugh.gif

[meadan]

yeah ive got it in the vice at the moment. im just going to wait till tomorrow before i start hitting things incase the neighbours decide they hate me http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/forums/emoticons/tongue.gif

it is the original shock i assume, because it is worn out to buggery, and also heaps of oil has drained out. this makes me think it wont be rusted, but it might just have gunk and stuff holding it in.

ill try hitting it and pulling it tomorrow, it should come loose i guess. should i be putting oil back in with the new insert?

[keiichi]

sounds stuffed alright. oil everywhere = no sealingz. also try hitting the rubber seal with a punch or something. original shox are always stuffed, should of seen mine, the chrome piston and everything fell into lots of different pieces when i took it out http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/forums/emoticons/laugh.gif

and no you dont need to put oil in with the new insert, which i assume is a sealed gas unit (looks like a bike pump but bigger kinda thing), you dont need to clean the oil out either cause it will help keep things corrosion free.

[Hen is a total nutcase]

Oil everywhere doesn't mean anything for a factory shock. They are wet leg, so if you take the top nut off then oil is free to come out.

If you can pull the shock shaft out then you should be set. Try using a slide hammer type arragement on it. Slide a heavy tube over the shaft, then put a washer and nut on top, then whack it out.

Good luck
Hen

[keiichi]

um but the hole in the middle of the top-nut doesnt act as a seal the rubber inside is the seal and the top-nut just holds it in the strut... right?

[meadan]

well i got them out this morning finally.
the top nut holds the orignal shock assembly in. Though it also seemed to hold the oil in a bit, because some of it pured out once the nut came out.
but yeah i just put it in a vice and pulled until the strut came off. it was hard to pull off because it is sealed in with a rubber ring, i assume this keeps the oil in.
one of my shocks had heaps of oil, and the other had half as much. also they both had different coloured oil, so im sure they were both dead.
the ride is a bit better, but i chucked in some chopped springs, so its hard to tell. it seems smotther to drive so it was worth the effort http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/forums/emoticons/tongue.gif