Help Please! Avensis Verso Tailgate Struts Removal

[rytoff]

My wife has recently traded her 1995 Previa GL for a 2001 Avensis Verso GLS in a bid to get more bang for her buck from a tank of fuel. However the tailgate is lacking resistance when closing the boot and I have decided to replace the gas struts now before the temperature drops in the winter.

I have received the struts and went to swap them with the older ones but cannot remove the original Toyota fitting. There does not appear to be the usual C clip on the Verso and the replacements have a pin to secure them to the ball joint.

A call to the supplier informs me that the original struts should just pop off which, to my mind, raises a mini safety issue but levering with a large screwdriver or even a mild coaxing with the hammer will not separate the strut from the mount.

Thanks for reading. Any solutions or suggestions are more than welcome.

[rytoff]

Dearly beloved has taken the Verso to local garage today who ended up removing the strut and bracket.

Their final solution was to hack the old struts off with an angle grinder. I'm sure there must have been an easier way but all sorted and forgotten about for only a tenner.

Job done