What is the trick to easily put the rear shock with spring (OEM) back on without having to compress the spring alot? Can I loosen the top control arm ball joint, and that will allow the rear arm to drop down alot? I went through this today and here was the procedure I used to get the rear shock/spring back on :

1. Put shock in place, and put the bottom bushing bolt in. I had to do this first since I counldnt align the bolt if the top of the shock went in first.
2. Compress spring like a ****.
3. Have help step on the rear axle to drop it enough so I could sqeeze the top of the shock into it's hole.

Is there away to avoid #2 without dealing with alot of spring compression? It would be nice to just drop the rear end, the same affect as the help stepping on the rotor but with even more clearance.

Thanks in advance!!!

 

Did you have the car jacked up off of the ground by the lift point on the frame rail?
If you did that with the wheel removed you shouldn't have had a need to touch the spring.

 

yes I did have the wheel removed. I was not able to put the shock/spring without putting the bottom bushing bolt back without puting the shock/spring bottom bolt first back then compressing the spring big time to put the shock back in the hole.