Folks,
Front end rebuild has been going swimmingly on my 1980 TR7 until just now. I
can NOT unscrew the large securing nut to take the damper/strut out of the
strut tube. How tight is it on? Well, I've got a pipe wrench on the tube
with about a two foot extension, and the nut locked in a bench vice, and all
I'm doing is lifting the whole bench off the floor. I suspect this nut has
never been off -- so 23 years of crud have had time to accumulate.
Some thoughts.
1. By any chance are those nuts reverse threaded?
2. My British Leyland stuff on suspension talks about drilling out the
"peening" at the top of the tube before removing the nut. I guess the
"peening" is like a flywheel key, a bit of metal that prevents the nut from
turning. Or maybe it is a dimple made my a punch? I can't see it, and I've
steel wooled the tube looking for it. Maybe the later years didn't have it.
3. I've soaked the tube and nut in PB Blaster with no result. Also tried
heating the tube with my propane torch. I didn't want it to get too hot, and
I didn't know if the stuff inside the old shock absorber might expand/blow
up, so I just made the tube too hot to touch, not glowing red or anything
like that, but the nut still won't budge.
4. The new struts come with new nuts, so I can destroy the old one, but I
don't want to mess up the threads in the tube.
So, any fabulous ideas? As always, thanks in advance.
Bruce
1980 Inca Yellow TR7 5-speed convertible
Chapel Hill, NC
"Send lawyers, guns and money." - Warren Zevon
"Dead fish go with the flow." -- Anon
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