Well I had to do one of my front struts yesterday. Not because it was leaking but because it was sticking. However I ran into a problem getting the brass plug off. The other two came off relatively easy with tape and a pair of vise grips gingerly applied(do not get anywhere near the bearing surface but rather on the internally threaded end). Not this one though it was TIGHT. Even tried Bryan's suggestion of a couple of wooden paint sticks and tape and a little heat to the plug. No joy just wouldn't even begin to loosen. So since Brantly is no longer around and special tools are hard to come by I grabbed a 1 3/8" hole saw and bored a hole in about a two foot long piece of 2x4 and put a double kerf thru the middle of it on a table saw.

Wrapped the plug with some of that gripping non slip cloth you can buy at Walmart and then clamped the 2x4 with a couple of clamps. On the loosen phase I also made a couple of "yokes" with the proper size hole to clamp around the shiny part of the strut. I just clamped it right down on the bench then took a about a 2 foot piece of 4x4 and whacked the 2x4 and finally the brass plug yielded. Going back together I just used the "special tool" in the vise and used the jam nut on the end of the rod end to tweak it the last bit to line up the hole for the retainer screw(won't work on taking it apart as the jam nut loosens hence you have to clamp the strut with the other yoke pieces.

By the way you do not have to remove the aluminum plug in the bottom of the brass plug. If you do(and it serves no purpose too) be prepared for that internal retaining ring to shoot about 30 feet and 8 inches away and it will be a bear to find

Another suggestion is to add Granville stut seal in the recommended ratio (1 to 8 ) to the 5606 hyraulic fluid. These days as our aircraft are getting older we find that simply replacing the seals and orings often don't remediate the problem. New seals, orings, and the strut seal seem to do the trick. The strut seal is FAA approved and is said to slick up and seal the metal as well. Don't know about that but I think it definitely cuts down on leaks and air loss(in pressurized shocks which these are not but that shows you the stuff works). I flew it a couple of hours today and it worked smoothly. So far so good!