Hello everybody, so here I am trying to get my rear end off, getting everything prepped...

I go to start, and wouldn't ya know, the first step I try, taking off the rear shocks, happens to be my first roadblock.

It seems the shaft is spinning... I was wondering if you guys had any tricks for getting it out that didn't involve me mutilating the shock and using a grinder on the shaft?

If that's my only option, I will do it, but I am hoping someone here has a way that's a little less... Invasive?

Let me know! Thanks!

 

I just used a pair of vice grips on the top of the shaft, letting it bind on the fender when you turn the wrench. Came off pretty easy. Good luck!

 

Other than this cutting may be your only option. Rear shocks are pretty cheap.

 

The top has flats that are meant to be grabbed by a wrench if you must take them off with a wrench, but 99% of people just hit them with an impact gun. If you're doing this and spinning them with a wrench I'd suggest that you stop and either take it to someone with an impact gun (put the nut on a turn or 2 and drive it home carefully like that) or borrow one, the more you spin it around the more difficult it will be to get it out.

If you're already past that, you've played around with it enough that it's spinning freely, then I'd suggest either a dremel or a worn down abrasive cutting disk in an angle grinder or die grinder (worn down to get it into that fairly tight spot without making a mess), cut right into the bottom of the nut/top of the washer until you've cut into the shaft far enough to break I off. You might be able to rip apart the rubber bushing and get a pair of needle-nose vise grips in there and then hit it with an impact gun but that typically isn't as easy as it looks like it will be. If it was outside the car you can burn bushings like that out with a propane torch, but inside the car, even if you set up fans and stuff, you'll smell that smoke for a year or 2 no matter what you do.

 

I'm guessing you've got it figured out by now, but the shafts/pistons do and will turn, which is why the tops of the pistons are designed with a feature to hold them steadily while you tighten/loosen the nuts.

KYB(below), for example, has flat sides on the top of the piston to grip with a wrench and hold the piston steady while you turn the nut(s).


Another example, Bilstein(below), the top of the piston is designed to use a hex bit/socket to hold the piston steady while you turn the nut(s).



Tightening down on rubber bushings makes it almost impossible for the nuts to get so tight that they won't break loose, because you can keep tightening and compressing the bushings, and they'll just bulge more and more outward, which would be too tight at that point. That's why some companies use two nuts for a banjo effect(KYB), and other companies use one nylon locking nut(Bilstein), to keep the nuts from backing-off. So as long as you're holding the top of the piston firmly in the way it's designed to be held, then there should be almost no reason for the nuts to be difficult to remove.

Front struts are designed similarly.

 

I had a similar problem with the front struts. I got a serpentine belt and wrapped it around the shaft and put tension on it while I put torque on the nut.
You can also use the belt as a friction material with a pair of vice grips to hold the shaft too, that is if you're trying to save the shock

 

Fortunately I wasn't trying to save the shock, I ended up breaking that flat sided tip off, and then I had to just cut the thing out.

Hurdle has been hopped!