Silly Question about Shock Insert Replacement

[troutmaskreplca]

Did a quick replacement of Bilstein inserts on the front of my 1980 SC a week or so ago, and then went out of town away from the car. I did something that's been gnawing at me since I've been away from it, and I'm just idly wondering here if folks have thoughts on it.

The old inserts came out just fine, and new inserts went in. I lined them up, old and new, on the bench just to make sure they looked about the same length, etc. before I put them in. Pressed them down, dropped the dust covers on, plonked the weird metal washer back on top of the dust cover, swung the strut back under the fender, and waited for the insert to expand and come back through the hole so I could put the nut back on.

Interestingly, with no weight on the shock, the inserts did not come all the way back up through. The thread was just poking out. So I, without thinking hard about it, used a jack to raise them up a bit, and put the washer+nuts back on, cleaned up, and headed out of town.

Did I do something dumb here? As I'm going about my day, I'm wondering: should the insert's thread have come all the way through naturally, without the jack?

[john walker's workshop]

Normal. I just lower the hoist until it comes out the top.

[troutmaskreplca]

Thank you, John. Really appreciate that. Strange how my mind can just zoom in on this while I'm trying to do something totally unrelated to Porsches!

[PeteKz]

When you pushed the strut down to get the old cartridges out, you almost certainly rotated the A-arm in the rubber bushings, which then held the A-arm and strut down a bit more than originally. That's the difference.

[Dpmulvan]

Originally Posted by troutmaskreplca

Thank you, John. Really appreciate that. Strange how my mind can just zoom in on this while I'm trying to do something totally unrelated to Porsches!

Stop listening to captain beefheart and your mind will clear right up!

[Dpmulvan]

[Dpmulvan]

9:07 in the video is the ticket.

[troutmaskreplca]

Lol