Hey guys and gals,

I ordered a rear Arnott air strut for the LR3 and took on that task today(Sunday) when everything is closed.

The problem we are having is the strut is extended too long and I cannot get it to collapse to install it! Any suggestions?

We had it secured by the top bolts/nuts on the vehicle when we realized it was too long. We tried leveraging it up(the shock) to make it the right fit size...and ended up removing it from the truck again where we thought we would have an easier time collapsing the shock but it won't budge AT ALL.

Any ideas on what if anything I can do other than send this thing back? There isn't something to remove from the air supply inlet besides a black plug that I can see.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

If only one side of the back is off the ground the sway bar is probably holding the lower control arm too high up.

You can jack both rears off the ground and the lower control will drop or you can disconnect the sway bar.

 

Would it be normal for us to not be able to push in on the shock to collapse it at all? I mean absolutely no movement?

 

I never tried, but seems not normal.

Can you mount it at top and use a pry bar with leverage to compress?

 

No...we tried using a 2x4 for leverage and nothing. Even tried(carefully) with a second floor jack. It doesn't move! Is there some safety built in maybe that trips when you raise the car to extended mode maybe? It holds locked up like this until then?

 

The bag portion with no air in it should be free to move. What you are playing with now is the shock absorber part of the air strut.

If you have Shop Air try to pump up through the Voss connector to see it expand.

 

Ok..I will try that tomorrow when I go back over there. Thank you!

 

Good luck

 

On the rears I had to use a pry bar in order to line it up to get the bottom bolt in. I thought the same exact thing that there was something wrong because they didn't line up but just need a little persuading.

I did do my install with a lift not sure what your using.

Also get the bottom seated before the top if you can that helped too.

 

Well we got it installed this morning thanks to Abran who pointed out that I was fighting my sway bar by having only one side jacked up!

It was still a fight but it went in and works like a champ!

Thanks y'all!!!