Office chair lift piston replacement

[Traxan]

Sorry if this is the wrong forum but none of the others seemed to fit.

So I have an office chair in the home office that had a bad habit of slowly sinking down when I sit in it. I found a lift piston replacement on Amazon for just $10 and noticed there were a ton of them for sale, so I presume this happens a lot.

Damn if I can get that piston out. I mean it will not come off the wheel base, and forget getting it off the chair.

Any suggestions on how to remove this, shot of swinging a mallet?

 

[DSF]

This article says to take the base off first and then twist the gas cylinder out with a pipe wrench:
http://www.familyhandyman.com/home-office/office-chair-repair/view-all

I've never tried this.

 

[Ken g6]

I've done this once. I don't recall how to remove it from the wheel base. But getting it off the seat pretty much did require swinging a mallet. (Carefully.) It's a friction fit that's really hard to break.

 

[JeffMD]

Swing that mallet. Its a friction fit, and after sitting on it for so long it is wedged in there. You can probably drill into the molding to break the fit, then live life with a chair that will separate when you lift it up.

 

[Puffnstuff]

You might try soaking around the edges with wd40 to help break the friction before you attempt to separate it.