Rear strut lower mount siezed

[JDUB fab]

As the title says, tried removing the rear struts to swap the coils and the things are seized on. Tried lots of hammering, some penetrating spray, heat, and a pitman arm puller… nothing has worked.
I see this issue on some T4R forums but thought I’d throw it out here and see if anyone has some knowledge.
Looks like the next step is to cut the suckers off and try not to damage the inside sleeve. That also means new struts.. going to try a bigger pitman/bearing press thing, and leave the penetrating oil in for a bit longer.
Here are some images, as you can see we gave it the beans.
Side note: the fronts were a bear too get out as well, mangled the threads on my lower ball joint in the process. Hoping I can clean it up and not have to replace it as well.

Uggg new, better struts sound great, but I still need to get the old ones off..

HELP!

 

[URJ150L]

Pry bar or hammer a wedge in there?

 

[WTITW]

HELP!

Ouch. If you can cut the top bolt off (or unbolt if it’s not as rusty as the rest of the rig) , you might try rotating the shock out away from the chasis using the leverage of the shock to crank it back and forth. The twisting might persuade it a bit more. Maybe twist it hard while your budy hits the lower mount with a hammer/pry bar. If not, you might be able to drill a bunch of holes in the lower bushing so you can twist/rip the shock off and then cut the remaining sleeve away from the mount post. It’s not much consolation but at least rear shocks are fairly cheap compared to the front struts : / Good luck.

 

[Rednexus]

There are two options, I can think of, depending on what type of tools you have and are willing to get:

Option 1: Cut through the outer metal shock bushing with a cutoff wheel to remove the shock from the vehicle. Then remove the rubber portion of the bushing and carefully cut off the inner metal bushing of the shock. A Dremel with a cutoff wheel would probably work best for that as you can be pretty precise with it.

Option 2: Get an air hammer and go to town on the shock. Air hammers are usually way more effective for removing stuck parts than a normal hammer because they deliver so many quick blows (I've gotten lots of stuff loose that wouldn't budge even when using a big normal hammer). This requires you to have an air compressor; I run my cheap HF air hammer off for a 2.5-hp, 8-gallon compressor and it does OK.

When you put it back together, give everything a liberal coating of anti-seize to hopefully keep it from happening again. It's probably also a good idea to get your GX fully-undercoated to keep other things from rusting.

 

[JDUB fab]

Pry bar or hammer a wedge in there?

Been there done that

Ouch. If you can cut the top bolt off (or unbolt if it’s not as rusty as the rest of the rig) , you might try rotating the shock out away from the chasis using the leverage of the shock to crank it back and forth. The twisting might persuade it a bit more. Maybe twist it hard while your budy hits the lower mount with a hammer/pry bar. If not, you might be able to drill a bunch of holes in the lower bushing so you can twist/rip the shock off and then cut the remaining sleeve away from the mount post. It’s not much consolation but at least rear shocks are fairly cheap compared to the front struts : / Good luck.

View attachment 3015340

Yeah I’ve been considering this.

There are two options, I can think of, depending on what type of tools you have and are willing to get:

Option 1: Cut through the outer metal shock bushing with a cutoff wheel to remove the shock from the vehicle. Then remove the rubber portion of the bushing and carefully cut off the inner metal bushing of the shock. A Dremel with a cutoff wheel would probably work best for that as you can be pretty precise with it.

Option 2: Get an air hammer and go to town on the shock. Air hammers are usually way more effective for removing stuck parts than a normal hammer because they deliver so many quick blows (I've gotten lots of stuff loose that wouldn't budge even when using a big normal hammer). This requires you to have an air compressor; I run my cheap HF air hammer off for a 2.5-hp, 8-gallon compressor and it does OK.

When you put it back together, give everything a liberal coating of anti-seize to hopefully keep it from happening again. It's probably also a good idea to get your GX fully-undercoated to keep other things from rusting.

Already tried an air hammer, but I have a Hilti hammer.. might give that a try, problem is the bushing absorbes the impact.
I think it’s gonna be the cutoff wheel… also considering burning the bushing out..

 

[WTITW]

Burning it out might be kind of risky in that tight of space next to the shock body. Better wear some eye protection like this guy;

 

[Rednexus]

Heat can definitely blow up a pressurized shock. Might be best to just cut it off.

 

[HVLA]

Cutoff wheel easy peasy.

 

[cgs2k2]

Can you put some sort of wedge in place and then lower the rear of the truck so that the weight of the vehicle forces it off? Otherwise, I would say CUT. Living in north east ohio and working through a lot of rusty/seized situations I can say the end results is almost always having to cut, and it works.

 

[r2m]

I'm voting the cut-off wheel. then just pound the stud out through the hole.

 

[HVLA]

You cut that thing off yet?

 

[JDUB fab]

So I called Mike at Exit Offroad, he mentioned that taking the top of the strut mount off, you can rotate the shock forward and it makes it wayyyyyyyyy easier to get the bottom off. Odd because multiple videos show removing the bottom first..

So I’ll be trying the top bolt maybe this weekend, see how it goes. The PB blaster is still soaking.

Mike also mentioned you can buy replacement bushings from Dobinson direct, if I need to drill them out to get the strut off.

 

[JDUB fab]

Slight progress today, got the top strut nut off, which does allow me to lower the axle without removing the lower mount. I did try and get the lower sleeve out but still didn’t seem to want to budge, even when I rotated the strut forward. But since I don’t need to remove it I’ll just leave that for when I upgrade later.

Getting the new rear coils in was another struggle. Had to remove the bolts on the links and break line mounting tab (lines were stretching a bit more than I’d like) to get the axle to drop, and even that wasn’t enough so I compressed the spring with a ratchet strap and finalllllly got the springs to go in. You can see the side by side comparison. New ones are definitly taller.

Now I’m struggling to get the axle up enough to attach the links, everytime I jack it up it starts to lift the truck before I get the links in. Going to try and jack at the outermost point I can so maybe the axle will pivot more that lift. Also considering trying to suck the axle up by using a ratchet strap on the frame…?

Also have questions about torque spec on the rear suspension and kdss stuff. I found the front numbers, but can’t find the rear. @Acrad

 

[URJ150L]

Watch those brake lines

 

[JDUB fab]

The saga continues, finally found a minute to work on the Lexus between family outings, two jobs and multiple weddings, the result was three stitches to the back of the hand today. Wacked it on the rotor dust cover thingy while trying to get the front coil overs in.
This quick coil swap is turning into quite the ordeal. Really got a lot of sweat and now blood poured over this job.
Should be good to continue wrenching by next week.
Got me a cheap coil compressor, just for the rears, makes it way easier to get them in and feels less sketchy than a ratchet strap, by just a little bit. I’m hoping they allow me to get the axle into position so I can button everything up. The new coils are so stiff I can’t get the axle up enough to re attach the links and struts without it lifting the rear end instead of compressing the axle up. But that will now have to wait, unless I can bribe my mechanic friend to make a house call..

 

[fjc-man]

You need to compress that spring more, the threaded rods aren’t even bending yet

 

[jiggletits]

Ouch. Did that to my knee on the front lower valence of my '87 4Runner changing the oil. Can't remember how many stitches. At least the GX isn't adorned in flimsy sharp sheet metal all around like those old dinosaurs.

 

[cgs2k2]

damn man, sorry about your injury. hope you can get the rest of it all knocked out quickly once you are back at it

 

[fjc-man]

Get a couple of 3 inch wide crank straps, over the frame rail and around the axle behind the brake backing plates to draw the body down.

 

[JDUB fab]

Update:
Got the rear springs in and links attached. @fjc-man for the win. Used a big ratchet strap the get the axle to compress enough on the drivers side to get the link bolt back in!! So thanks for that! Passenger side went up better, no need for the strap, just a drift pin.
Pulled the lower control arm off the hub, via the ball joint mounting bolts(2). This allows for full drop of the LCA to fit the new coil overs in. Wish I had done this before detaching the actual ball joint up and fudging the threads a bit. But got a new dye in for that so I should be able to clean it up and get the front installed and back down on the wheels sooooon.