have you tried a universal joint(swivel socket)?

 

Yeah i figured looking thru this site and the haynes manual, it was gonna be easy,= top shock nut and three shock tower nuts and the bottom bolt,pull new one out and reverse order, But nooooooooooooo, i have a swivel thats what i used for the rears but not a swivel socket, i think i need a flex head ratchet or flex head wrench, i have a 1/4 in flex ratchet but to big doesnt fit and i cant for the one time i need it or life of me fine my 3/8 flex head ratchet, prob left it in the engine bay and drove off and lost it down the road like i have many of times. Some of those funny noises your hearing are your tools dangling, lol,

 

You only need to unbolt the top nut on the shock and the bottom bolt that holds the shock in then pull down, she will pop out with out taking the shock tower out or the spring.

they have nothing to do with each other when it comes to changing the shock out, the only thing the tower does is hold the shock in place and support it.

 

Unlike this pic i dont have studs....YAK I thought about that , but i dont think it will tweak far enough because the coil spacer is in the way,it takes up alot of room on the inside as well for the shock to clear, im out for tonight , but have all day tommorow to figure it out, Thanks

 

if you got a sawzaw cut the ****in thing inhalf and pull it out in pieces, dont take your holding ring off the new shock ontill you get it back into place then cut it and let the shock spring back so you can line it up.

if you havent already taken off the lil plastic ring that keeps the shock from springing open while in the box.

Otherwise you're in a world of hurt if u try to compress those bilsteins. They are stiff as hell.

 

This is how the originals look. If you cut or drill them out, I think you'll still need to remove the springs to put new studs or bolts in. I say compress the springs and try to get a socket underneath. Good luck. It looks like a pain.

 

Yeah im thinking maybe a crows foot or offset or flex wrench, or compress the spring, I WISH IT WAS like yours , it would be done already in about 20 min ............I dont get why it was changed.

 

Cut the ****ing thing!

 

it looks like your studs have been cut out and replaced with bolts, and the damn nuts are buried in the spacer.

do you have a parts store close by? if so, the easiest and safest thing to do is compress the spring so you can get to the nuts. you can rent spring compressors. if you keep the spacer, and you have a welder, you could tack the bolts heads underneath to recreate the original studs.

if you jack up the body and extend the spring, can you expose the nut ? with shock disconnected, make sure you don't go up so high you allow the spring to twist or contort or jump out in some manner.

 

On mine those three bolts go right into the spring spacer. there is NO nut on the underside of the upper coil holder. (or so it is on mine)