Well, I got the front struts off my truck with a minimum of cursing and even compressed the spring and removed the top nut without a problem (thank-you impact wrench) but now even with the top nut removed I cannot get the top spring retainer plate to come off. I have hit it with a big hammer, hit it with an even bigger hammer. Put the nut back on a few threads and tried decompressing the spring, then hitting it with an even bigger hammer. It just isn't budging.

Am I missing something?

 

I just recently replace my upper strut mount (which I believe you referred to as the "top spring retainer plate). The only issue I ran into was compressing the spring enough that it slightly backed off the upper mount, then I was able to remove the nut holding the strut in place. After that the mount came off easy. Not sure what kind of problem you could be having. If you can submit a pic of what you got at the moment I'll try to help.

 

 

That's really weird. Can't really tell much from the picture, except that the top stem of your strut looks like it got smashed. Is it not budging at all? Will it twist or rotate at all? I will submit a few pics that I just took of my strut that I removed from my truck a couple days ago. I don't know, maybe seeing it in pieces can help you figure it out.

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Thanks for the pictures, I have the other side all apart but the hammering on the top of the strut is from me trying to free it. Based on the other side it that top cap should just slide off after the nut is removed but it just simply won't. I'm very perplexed on this one.

 

Well, solved my problem. Got really really angry and decided to literally throw the strut into my driveway and BOOM! She sprang apart like a jack-in-the-box.

 

LOL that figures and its funny. One thought occurred to me tho, when I took my first one apart I didn't have a spring compressor and used ratchet straps and the problem I had was that the spring was compressed more on one side and was squeezing the mount between the spring and the strut. Regardless, I'm glad you were able to get it off!