Hello as part of my brake bleeding adventure I had to remove the front rear shocks to access the bleeders. Shock removal was easy, but the installation has been an issue. With the top mounted the bottom does not line up. They seem to be a bit too long, roughly 1mm. There is not enough slop in it to wiggle it in. This is the case for both shocks. My next step is to try to compress the spring (really only need about 1mm). Has anyone had a similar experience, or have any tribal tricks that worked. If they were a little too short I could just lift the hub with a jack to line it up. Anyway thanks for any input here.
On a side note the access to the top mount for the other shock looks very limited.
In a similar situation I used a bottle jack under the bottom of the shock to raise up a bit. Actually, 1mm is pretty close, should be easy to get that with the jack.
Skene, Terry gave me a good tip including photo in this thread about putting a jack between the body and hub carrier when I could not get my shock back in place a few months ago. Maybe it will help you too.
I used my Toyota Tundra bottle jack. Placed it under the shock at the same angle as the shock and slowly raised it, voila shaft slid in nicely. Once I figured this out it took ~10min each side. I won’t discuss the previous 4hrs spent on various MacGyver or Jerry rigging attempts including a failed attempt to compress the spring. Arrg. Car is back on 4 wheels again.