I recently tried to replace my original motorcraft shocks with new Gabriel G57120 and G57129. I started with the rear. I took out the old ones fairly easy. I used the spring compressor to remove the old strut and put in the new one, which was fairly easy. Now when I try to put it back in is where I have the problem. The top goes in fine, but now the bottom wont line up with the bolt hole. Ive tried everything to try to get the shock lined up and its still sitting in my parking lot on jack stands. Any advice. Heres some pictures.

 

LOL. Unless I'm missing something else, It looks like your floor jack already knows the solution!

But if you already jacked the shock up, if the bolt is long enough, sometimes I'll put the nut on it, and bevel the end of the bolt with a grinder. Remove the nut. That way it'll line the shock up a little when you hammer the bolt in.

 

That was the first thing I tried and used a pry bar to hold the control arm down. But everytime i would jack it up i couldnt get it to stay in the cradle to put the bolt in

 

Spring compressor would be my next try then.

 

yup, you need to compress the spring to collapse the shock enough to put the bold in