WIth the recent freezing and thawing in Michigan, my dirt road has gone from manageable to "well, you might as well just not leave the house" in a matter of days. I think somewhere over the course of the past 50 large potholes I hit in the past day or two I must have hit one exceptionally large one, because now the top half of my passenger side rear shock is rubbing on the lower half and making a god awful squeak.

I went out and bought some decent Monroe shocks for the back of the truck. Day 1: could not for the life of me get the nut off the top of the shock. Tried penetrating oil & using heat, no luck.

Day 2: Bought a nut breaker to try cracking the nut off. New shocks come will all new hardware anyway. Still no luck, can't get the breaker to not slip off the nut sideways. Penetrating oil from day one pretty much ineffective.

As I found out, the concave washer that sits between the nut and the frame rail the shock mounts against makes it all but impossible to get a good grip on this nut. Does anyone have any ideas on how the **** to get this thing off?! '01 Screw 2wd.

 

Been there done that. Cut it of. Just make sure you are not cutting the mount. In my case I took a hack saw and threaded the blade through a hole in the frame to get to the upper portion. You can cut through the rubber or between the bolt and bushing backing. May even be able to get a saws all in there, although I doubt it.
Also I would change out the front also with the same brand model. You do not want different return rates with different shocks. That could be uncomfortable and dangerous.

 

Yeah, this is rediculous. Thing of it is, they aren't the original shocks, they've already been changed once (date/mileage unknown.) I'm just surprised at how poor the design is; there's no path for my hand that allows me to get enough torque on a wrench to actually loosen the nut. So even once I get the old ones off, I'm not real sure how I'll get the new one torqued down enough.

And yes, I made sure. They're all Monroe Reflex shocks. Their no Bilstiens, but they're cheaper and will provide almost as nice a ride. I never use it for towing and it rarely hauls more than human cargo, so hd shocks weren't needed, either.

I'll try the sawsall this weekend... hopefully with a little more luck!
Happy St. Patty's Day!

 

I had no problem getting them on as the Bilsteins I put on have a whole at the top that an allen wrench fit in. Monroes I believe have flat spots that an open end wrench will fit. If you have a ratchet box end wrench, that would be best for tightening the nut. Don't squish the rubber bushing too much.

Make sure you put some anti-seize on the threads, just in case.

 

I've come to the conclusion that whoever did the shocks last put the cup washer on reversed. Instead of the inside of the cup being against the rubber bumper, its against the nut. THAT is why i'm having so much trouble.

 

That definitely would not help the situation.

 

I'm told not to bother with a sawsall, the stud on the shock is far too tough to cut through. But we're going to get this one way or another.

 

Don't know why it would be that tough. Like said, I did it with a hacksaw by hand. It would be far easier with a saws all.

 

I actually found a dremil tool in the attack. Got the passenger side nut off the top, now I'm letting some penetrating oil do the trick on the bolt to the axle. Unfortunately, space is considerably more limited on the driver side, so a sawsall might be my only option (or a hacksaw for that matter.)

 

So I managed to get the passenger side off and the new one on. I can blame that on the fact that its so much easier to access, but hey, I'm halfway done.

For one who faces the same problem as I: A Dremil tool works wonders. Had the larger cutting disk on it and just ground straight through the nut and even cut the top part of the stud off (so I wouldn't have to thread the rusty, cut up nut all the way off).

As far as the bolt to the axle is concerned, lots and lots of WD-40! I'm too lazy to actually buy Kroil, but WD did the trick. Gave it an hour to sit and loosened up the bolt enough that I was able to use my foot against a ratchet to break it free. Not ideal, but hey, it worked.

I'll try the driver's side either tomorrow or Saturday.