I understand it would probably be a non-event if the weight of the engine in the car were present. However, as you can see from the attached pictures, I have successfully disconnected the tie rod ends, upper and lower ball joins and the sway bar link and removed the hub/break assembly. Now only the shock is holding the lower A-arm but the force of the torsion bar is putting downward pressure on the lower A-arm, thus causing the shock to now be fully extended. In this situation there is too much tension/ downward force on the upper shock bolt to allow it to be to drifted it out. If I had the engine in the car, I could likely jack up the lower A-arm and compress the shock. However, without the weight of the engine, when I jack up the lower A-arm, the shock does not compress one little bit but instead it just lifts the car off the wooden blocks seen in picture 1.
If I do just hammer out the upper bolt, I am sure that the lower A-arm is going to “pop” downward because it is definitely under a good deal of tension from the torsion bar. I know this would not all be an issue if the engine were in place as then, with that extra weight, I could jack up the lower A-Arm and compress that shock. I’m not sure if I’m making sense with respect to what I think is the issue here.
