ACE front actuator gaiter replacement - steps required

[egami]

Hello, wondering whether it's worth replacing or trying to repair the front actuator gaiter on a Discovery 2 TD5, as follows:

When replacing the gaiter on the front ACE actuator on a Discovery 2 TD5, am I able to remove the nut at the top of the actuator arm that joins it to the bushes long arm and separate the actuator arm enough to slide the old gaiter off and put a new one on?

Or do I need to remove the whole arm or any other nuts / ACE pipes. Reading the RAVE manual (60-63) it seems it only describes how to replace the whole arm and not just the gaiter, I am hesitant to remove the whole arm.

See below images for context.

My front ACE actuator gaiter has completely torn and separated into two parts:


https://cloud.egami.ch/index.php/s/j6UgTsfZVjw0BLD

I have a replacement gaiter and the tool to remove the below nut:


https://cloud.egami.ch/index.php/s/ocNmIp39RSZiG8P

[Pawl12]

You seemed to have asked this question on a couple of forums without any answers.

From what I've seen, trying to disconnect the ram end to get a new gaiter on can be very difficult as it's very easy to round off the retaining nut on the end of the ram which is mostly recessed into the pivot. It's also very difficult to grip the ram piston adequately to prevent rotation,  but without damaging the piston surface / chrome. The exposed thread the nut has to pass over is invariably very rusty & doesn't help.

I  also had a badly split gaiter that I was advised would fail an MOT, so I was also looking for a solution.
My initial plan was to cut the old gaiter off & split the new gaiter to fit & then superglue it back together in situ.

I was lucky in the end that I found a complete new Old Stock ACE ARB assembly for stupid money & replaced the lot in 1 go

(it solved all sorts of noises that I hadn't realised were ARB related - lol)