5th gen help! Can’t get the top hat off of front strut

Hi everyone,

I am in the process of installing an old man emu leveling kit on my girlfriends 2020 4Runner TRD Off-road. The kit did not come with a new top hat assembly so I have to reuse the old ones. I used spring compressors and removed the nut on the top hat and the thing won’t budge. I screwed the nut back a good ways and tried seeing if the force from the spring would knock it loose and nothing happened (see attached image). Am I doing something wrong? I also tried some careful persuasion with a pry bar and a dead blow hammer.

thank you in advance!

 

If they’re not rusted on they should fall right off. I’d suggest going to the auto parts store and getting a KYB replacement top. I think I paid less than $50 for the pair.

 

It gives me the heebee geebeez looking at that thing without the nut on there. Those portable spring compressors aren’t that trustworthy, so hopefully you have the nut back on and tightened down. Otherwise that thing is a loaded gun with the hammer back.

In some ways, the technique of disassembling a coilover/strut on the 4runner can be safer than the portable spring compressors. If done carefully on the vehicle, at least it keeps the entire assembly captured by the shock tower and lower shock bolt….you hold up the lower control arm with a jack, loosen the top nut a bit, relieve a bit of pressure by lowering the jack on the LCA, loosen top nut a little more, etc, until all the pressure is relieved and the top nut can be removed. I did mine like this, and the spring stayed “glued” to the top hat. I was able to remove the damper by removing the lower bolt and swinging the LCA out of the way, pulling the damper out of the bottom of the spring. I left the spring hanging because I only needed to reset the seat height on my Dobinson IMS shock. Because of that, I never tried to unstick the spring from top hat as it hung in the car. Just left it there and reinstalled the damper once I was done adjusting it.

There are some videos out there on how to dissasemble coilovers on the vehicle, but it’s still risky and not something I’d recommend. It also requires you tighten your LCAs correctly so you dont end up with torn bushings.

Regardless, it’s sticking probably because the rubber isolator on the tophat probably became bonded to coil. Or the rubber extruded itself around the coil. It will probably take some hammering to release it, and it may not be in the best condition to reuse it afterword, so I also agree that it’s just best to replace with new ones.

 

I figured that’s what was supposed to happen. That’s good know, I should’ve just done that to begin with, it would’ve saved me a lot of headache.

 

Oh yeah those spring compressors scare the crap out of me. the guy at the parts store suggested I borrow two sets of them and put all 4 on the coil when I compress it which definitely made it feel less sketchy. I was doing research last night and found the disassembling method. I should have done that to begin with. At this point I'm just going to go to the parts store and pick up a new pair of top hats. It'll save me a little grief with the spring compressor. I appreciate the response!