25 minutes ago, adivin said:

Ok, I am fighting a strut insert now.  Just like all the post above, this thing is putting up a fight.  I've done everything but chain it to a tree and car bumper or drill a hole in the bottom to pound it out.  This could be worse than the spindle pin!

I would chain it between two trees with a comealong or chain binder as encouragement

1 hour ago, adivin said:

Ok, I am fighting a strut insert now.  Just like all the post above, this thing is putting up a fight.  I've done everything but chain it to a tree and car bumper or drill a hole in the bottom to pound it out.  This could be worse than the spindle pin!

Drill a hole in the bottom of it, shove a thick bar inside it and beat it out, it was the only way I could do it, you’ll need something to hold the perch of it, if I recall I would beat it, spray pb blaster in it, flip it upside down, wait an hour and come back and keep beating it.

you’ll win.
 

order a flapper disk thingy so you can sand down all the $^!# inside it, or your not gonna be able to insert the new strut. 

I think this is going to be my next course of action.

On 12/6/2020 at 11:38 PM, heyitsrama said:

Drill a hole in the bottom of it, shove a thick bar inside it and beat it out, it was the only way I could do it, you’ll need something to hold the perch of it, if I recall I would beat it, spray pb blaster in it, flip it upside down, wait an hour and come back and keep beating it.

you’ll win.
 

order a flapper disk thingy so you can sand down all the $^!# inside it, or your not gonna be able to insert the new strut. 

So in my attempt to pound it out from a hole in the bottom, I ended up putting a hole in the bottom of the insert.  The bastard has not come out.

@adivin possible to get some pictures? We like photos here helps us see what we are thinking about. :)

so did you win?

No, never could get the damn thing out.  The next step would be a hydraulic ram puller.  I found a replacement strut.  It should arrive next week.

The surface area of the rust that's bonding the shock cartridge to strut casing is huge, so I'm not surprised that it won't budge.  You'd probably need to combine all of the strategies suggested by the members here and then add a lot of heat, too.  I think you made the right decision in the end.