Does anyone have trouble getting these apart? Is it supposed to be impossible so you need to buy a new one for $1000? Over the last few years I have spent a lot of hours trying to unscrew the caps on the tubes of these things. I have got a few apart by heating the blazes out of the thing. One I literally cut the tube in half to salvage the rod and piston. So today I had to try to do another one. I tried for a bit and gave up. I took it into the the maintenence shop where I was working and asked for help. These guys tear apart and repair huge machines, motors, gearboxes. They press apart big extruding machines that are stuck with molten plastic that seem imposible to me.
First we made a wrench to fit the cylinder head and clamped it on there. The 5' breaker bar just broke the wrench. Then the guy comes out with a 5' pipe wrench that is just a chore to pick up. The tube was clamped in a special vise mounted to a steel table that had to weigh a ton. One guy held the wrench, another put a 6' lenght of 3" pipe on as a breaker bar, I got the **** out of the way..... It came. Now I owe them lunch.