Thanks for the advice, guys. I didn't get to finish this yesterday because I
feared I would lose daylight before I was done and needed it to drive to
work in the morning. I'm going to try again this weekend. I also got a
little hand torch to heat up some of the bolts and make it a little easier.
I tried to get the rear ones off too, but couldn't get them to budge. I
figured heat may help.
I'll let you know how it goes.

-p

On Mon, Jan 3, 2011 at 1:14 PM, Gregory Smith <gfs@gregoryfsmith.com> wrote:

> Hi Peter,
>
> If you're sure you're not going to reuse the shock, use a pipe wrench on
> the polished shaft near the top, just below the bump stop. The great
> thing about a pipe wrench is the more it rotates, the tighter it grabs.
> Carefully rotate with a wrench on the top nut in a loosening direction
> until the pipe wrench handle is against the chassis, then apply more
> force.
>
> Gregory Smith
> '88 Vanagon GL
>
> Smith Design Studio
> Small Building Company
> Olympia, WA
> 360-239-0429
> gregoryfsmith.com
>
> Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2011 14:57:52 -0600
> From: Peter Lapp <carrothospital@GOOGLEMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: Shocks again
>
> Thanks everyone for the replies. Whatever kind is in there(from the PO),
> it
> has the flat end tip, with no hexslot.
>  I put the vice grips on the end of the rod where it has the flat ends
> and
> tried to hold it while turning a wrench on the nut. I think I eventually
> started stripping away that top part with the vice grips.
> As far as I can tell, there's not enough space to use an impact driver
> in
> there, but maybe a nut splitter will get the job done.
> I'll try out some of the advice and see what happens.
> Thanks!
>