Jim King's notes
Jim had some addition al wisdom to share. I am happy to hear your suggestions and share them with the community at large.
--- Jim King
On the other hand, don't use too much muscle on the top nut. I know a guy that sheared off the top of one of his Tokikos by cranking too hard on it!
Jim
Bryan Said
I used pipe wrenches on my glandnuts.
My struts spun in the car except when I used the impact. Only problem I had was with the finish on the tokicos being too thick on teh new gland nut binding. A quick radius grind fixed that! I may add your comments to the page if you don't mind... Let me know if that would be ok.Ciao
Bryan
--- Jim King
Bryan,
Good info on the MKI technical section.
Additional tips regarding strut R&R (I've done this too much lately...)
You can usually get the top nut loose while the strut is in the car and it is ON THE GROUND. So break it loose and back it almost all the way off as the very first step in removing the struts, before even jacking up the car.
Note that the spring perch is keyed so flats on the top of the piston rod fit into it and keep the piston rod from turning. When reassembling, the trick is to get the springs compressed enough so that the perch can be pushed down the piston rod far and seated on the flats before tightening the big nut. The get the gland nut loose, when you don't have a vice, you can also use a large pair of channel locks or pipe wrench while the strut assembly is mounted in the car and the suspension is hanging. There is usually enough room between spring coils. You can also do the final tightening of the gland nuts on the car (front only), but I like your two pipe wrench method better. In any case I wrap the piston rod on the new shock in several layers of duct tape in case I slip (haven't yet, but...)
Jim K