Help stripped shock shaft hex

[naossoan]

Hi all,

I previously lowered my yaris with some tein springs but I have moved to a new location and needed to raise the car back up to stock height for various reasons.

While working on the front struts, I managed to get the passenger side strut out from the car, but while attempting to loosen the nut which actually holds that top piece on the strut, the top hex thing stripped out.

It wasn't in the best condition from the last time I did the job, because if I recall correctly I didn't exactly have the right tools.

Anyway, now the top hex part that is needed to stop the shaft from turning while loosening/tightening that not us stripped out and I'm not sure what to do at this point.

I was considering taking a dremel and grinding a slot into the top of the shaft so I can put something in there, but it's gonna bugger the threads and be really difficult to get the nut off/on again.

Any better suggestions?

Oh and the driver side 19mm bolts that hold the strut to the lower control arm or whatever are crazy tight. I can't get the same strength on them as I could on the other side since to loosen them I have to pull down, whereas the other side was up so I could put a lot of back into it....any suggestions for loosening those buggers?

[WeeYari]

Top nut; I've never had any issues needing to stop the shaft from turning when going at the nut with an impact wrench. Sounds like you probably don't have one. My advice, go to Canadian Tire and get one of their electric ones that go on sale for 70% off all the time. It will be one of your best investments ever.

[naossoan]

You mean impact gun right? Yeah, I don't have an impact gun. There might be one in the garage but there are no hoses for the connection to the compressor....

I guess I could probably go pick up some hoses for relatively cheap?

I need to do this job like basically today, tomorrow at the latest, so I can't wait for some tool to go on sale.

I wonder if I'd be able to get away with going to get one, using it do the shocks then just returning it....

I managed to get the rubber boot thing and bump stock away form that end of the shock and attempted to grab the shock shaft with vice grips (as that end of the shaft is never going to go inside the shock, it's covered with the bump stop anyway) but even with the vice grips locked as tight as I could possibly get them, the shaft still turned.

I don't want to grab the threaded end of the shaft with vice grips cause it will completely wreck the threads, and since I need to do this job right away I can't wait for replacement parts.