Vacation - Pt. 2 - The Stuck Strut Cartridge

The first major issue I was forced up against over my vacation was a stuck strut cartridge.

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When disassembling my suspension, this one front strut tube was the only one that I had any issues with. We banged on it, heated it up with my new Mapp gas torch (do not do this is your strut is not already blown), and beat the ever living piss out of it from every angle.

Then we tried the hoist.

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I laid the hoist on its side, trapped the strut tube under one of the legs and started pumping.

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I actually had to sit on the thing because it was starting to bend and lift there was so much pressure applied. Even with the chain pulled tight enough to play it like a guitar string, it still didn't budge, and frankly we were afraid of what would happen if it did at that point. So we moved on.

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Later, since I was cutting and sectioning the struts any way I decided to measure out the cut points and try to cut the strut tube and the whole strut cartridge in half, hoping that it would break the cartridge free.

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That turned out to be wishful thinking.

I ended up driving out to Harbor Freight at a total loss for how to get this effing tube out, and came back with this BAMF.

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A 12 ton hydraulic press.

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While I was there I picked up a round hunk of metal to stuff through the tube and push the stuck cartridge housing out.

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Didn't work.

Not terribly upset though cause I only spent $100 on the press and now I can do my own wheel bearings. lol.

After completely giving up from hammering on this mother fucker for upwards of 6 hours, the nice little old lady that runs my local hardware store gave me the solution.


Nails.

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As you can see in the picture I just hammered about fifteen nails into the strut tube separating the cartridge housing and satisfaction was achieved.

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Tough Guy was very proud of me.

Now I can finally finish my suspension build!