Greetings. Just replaced the gas springs for the hood on my ’02 Sequoia and thought I would share what I found. When open, the top end of the spring is a standard clip that you can pop out with a regular flat bladed screwdriver (small size) but the bottom I could not get to pop off. I would up supporting the hood with a stick and unbolting the mounting stud from the interior fender wall. I then took my angle grinder with a cut off wheel and delicately cut through the socket on the gas spring. What I found that there is a small snap ring between the mount ball and the spring socket That prevents it slipping off. I tried to pop it out on the second spring and couldn’t. I just wound up repeatIng the delicate cutting off procedure. Simply remounted the studs and popped the new springs on. Hope this helps anyone trying to do the same.
