do I have to unbolt the upper A-arms on the rears? I'm not sure I can push the suspension down far enough to line up the bottom shock mount without doing this.

Of course, I'm having other problems, one of my spring compressors froze up and I can't get it off. So in order to move the car out of the way I had to drop the car without any rear spring and roll it. I don't know if that will cause any major damage, but I won't be surprised.

 

I don't think it will have caused any damage. Maybe if you left it parked like that for a long period of time

I always used a pry bar to get the rear a-arms to come down about 1". They moved pretty eaisly.

Did you disconnect the rear swaybar? I found that gave me more droop out of the rear and gave me more room to get the shocks in/out.

 

I think you have the answers.. the most common issue is pressure from the sway bar (especially if only one side is jacked up), but the upper frame bushing can also hold the preload pretty well. I did see one person put a small bottle jack between the wheel and fender to help line up the bolt hole and it seemed to work pretty well.

 

Thanks guys! I did not try disconnecting the swaybar. I'll try that when I get home. Now if only I can get the spring compressor off. I have no idea what happened.

And Legal Bill (If you're reading) I decided I love the Konis, even if I only had the fronts on for the last autoX. Somehow I got first in PAX (just a local event. Had to be the shocks. that, and the new bar. Plus, as an added bonus, my wife and I took a 3 hour road trip this weekend, set the fronts to almost full soft, and had a nicer ride than stock just for cruisin'.

 

disconnect the sway bar and use a long 6' pry bar with a big guy on the end to get it to fit. I used the handle of my floor jack although something else suitably long would do. It's a bitch and a two man operation.