YoshiMan

So while waiting for parts to come in to finish up the electronic/air elimination, i decided to accelerate things later by taking the front actuators and bracket off the front struts so i can throw my KYB's on there....

Okay, you've got to be kidding me on the amount of room there is to get those off. The factory service manual says to use a 4mm hexagon wrench, which just BARELY fits, but then the wrench is rubbing against the wheel well so there is no way to get any torque on it.... hmmm... i think the electronic suspension bits were definitely designed on as an afterthought

How did you guys do it? it looks like you need to cut a wrench down shorter for it to fit...

I am going to maybe screw with it a few times more, and then it's getting the rotary cutter/large chisel and hammer treatment, and i am just going to break the actuator off in pieces to get access to that bracket bolt.

funny, for being as clean on the underside as my GX is, these suspension bolts seems to put up a fight more than any others i've done (except for my old Escalade, all the bolts on that were made of cheese) One of the rear shocks required that i hold it steady with a chain wrench while i had to physically break the seized top nut off... quite the workout!

IncgntoLex

I think your right. The design looks like it was made in a last minute scramble to add onto the Gx. I actually undid the strut itself so I could lower it before removing the actuator. This gave me just enough extra space to make a world of difference. I honestly don't think I would have been able to get that off any other way.

I used an oilfilter wrench to hold mine, ended up breaking off the nut on both of the shocks as well.

BradTank

I had major problems with these as well, just a horrible design and mine almost instantly stripped. I hate allen bolts, just one of those fasteners that always seems to have issue and there is zero access in this case.

I can't remember the solution, but in hindsight I should have just ripped them off rather than fooling with them for so long.

Ali SC3

iTrader: (10)

I know I had the same problem with these, I think I used small vice grips to grab the bolt that faces towards you from the side and managed to brake it free. I could not get the rear one off... until I twisted the whole actuator like 90 degrees so I could get the vice grips on the rear one as well.
Whenever I see a Toyota Allen key bolt or a Philips head (notorious for stripping) the first tool I go to is the vice grips and attack it from the side, that way you never strip the head of the bolt... not that its helpful to leave the head un-stripped but it looks cleaner when done.

Really they should have just used 8mm bolts or something like that so you can get a ratchet on there, might even replace the originals before they get stuck again.

the actuator doesn't really want to twist, but it will to some degree, just enough to get the bolt out, and only in one direction (odd but that the way it was).
It was not fun at all, but going back in the bolts were easy =)

YoshiMan

Thanks for the responses! I'm thinking i am just going to cut into the front side of the bracket with a circular saw, then hammer on the actuator to bend it upwards and just undo the nut that holds it on together. It sounds like way too much effort for something that is just getting scrapped anyway!

IncgntoLex

It really wasn't that bad. Once you lower the whole shock, it only takes 5 minutes per side. The key is lowering the shock before attempting to remove the actuator. I'm half tempted to reinstall mine just so I can make a video showing how I did it.