Had a customer come in asking for a tool that will stop the strut's piston rod from spinning as he was tightening the big plate nut on top. I gave him a strange look as I've never heard of such a problem as I've only assembled a couple struts and used an impact to tighen the nut. Is there such a tool or is he just having problems?

On the ones I have seen, there was a hex key hole on the top of the shaft, and you just used a hex key and a wrench to torque it down..

(Putting The Hex key in and holding it while tightening the nut down with an open ended wrench)

-Todd

I've also encountered the ones with the flat blade screw driver slot.

Joe

He needs to first of all be safe when doing that kind of work, but make sure the spring is compressed all the way far enough to tighten the bolt on the strut all the way.

Since I do this kind of work for a living. If he has done the above, an impact wrench works great. But you have to make sure the strut is in a suitable safe compressor. If the shaft just spins, I just "goose" the gun. Or keeps triggering the gun like you would be shooting a semi auto handgun and unloading the clip. (Like some wild west shootout, bam, bam, bam, ;) ). You want to be quick like that. It really works. Each time force is put on the nut when he hits the impact, It spins the nut a little bit.

You can also try the big vice grips to hold the shaft from spinning so much but many times you will really need to clamp it tight to prevent it from spinning. Which can be tough to do if your not strong enough to squeese the grips tight, which im not. You really need to get that thing TIGHT on some of them. Thats why I suggest the impact wrench (or both).

Ok, thanks. I had a feeling he was doing this with a wrench or something by hand, andI couldn't come up with an idea or tool how to help him.