Any rebuildable shock comes apart not too bad with the correct tools and some smarts.
A shock that has any play on the shaft is too far gone to do without advanced machining. A shock with a fraction of play will likely require much stiffer oil and even then it may not work well.
First get the shock derusted on the outside. I use a torch to burn the original rubber seal out from between the cover and the locking ring. Then a pick to pick the space out as best I can. Then I use a light ball peen hammer and start hammering around the cover gently, letting gravity control the hits and I hold the shock in my hand too. The idea is two fold. It will break any rust and causes the cover to expand slightly. I do this to the seal ring too. There comes a point when you can tell a difference in the hits as it starts to loosen some.
I used some copies of some shock tools the Tom Weisburg (I am not spelling your name correct I know) had made to take a apart shocks. You can use a vice grip chain wrench or a strap wrench. This should get your cover and lock ring off.
Next you need special tools ($$$$). You need 1 9/16" deep socket and a 3/4" impact. You mount the vice in something that will have NO (I mean NO) play. I have a very large and heavy vice old vice. I used 2 bad shock bolts and clamped it down tight. Then if there was no rust on the inner cover I used the impact. If there was rust or the impact did not get the shock to co-operate then I heated and quenched the shock a few times. Important- I never went above about 300+ degrees, the point where oil will start to smoke. I do NOT like to take the metal above that point becuase you can alter the metal structure so I avoid it when I can. After heating the impact got all the shocks loose- a few took a few seconds before you got small movement and then slow turning.
Notice I do not use any penetrating fluid at all. It really does little for really stuck parts unless you have a lot of time to wait and even then.. But this is a whole other story.
Now once you have the cover off you get to find out just how good the shock is. Clean it up and you hopefully have an extremely tight fit. Any slight play and you will find you need a thicker oil to get proper operation.
Now that pesky valve.
You have to use heat on the wing shaft. Remember above where I say I do not like to use too much heat- except when needed. Here is where I had to use way more heat then I really wanted to use. You need to cook the packing so it comes loose and break the rust that you may find in some. You have to look at what you have to decide how much you do. I heated and quenced a couple of times.
Then you take the shaft to the bench and see if it wants to break loose. Take it easy. If it does not feel right heat it again. Early on I took a pointer off trying to hard. If the pointer comes off the end no problem. I chucked it up with a good quality drill chuck and put a wrench on it. I have a lathe so I used a tail stock chuck.
I did about 15 shocks using the above methods and using advice from Tom Moniz. What appeared to be an impossible job got easy with some knowledge and a couple of the correct tools.
The socket to buy is a Williams 16-650. I got lucky and someone on Amazon had a half price sale and got it for like $22. It clears the valve and can take the abuse.
Hope that helps. May be Tom will re-post his shock tools. I was working off of my notebook where I had put a print out so I would not loose it on my hard drive
