Front Suspension/Strut Adjustment

[Jerry Scholder]

While recently replacing lower control arms, (ball joint and bushing) on my 2001 740i, I moved the strut up manually to access the nut on the ball joint more easily. When installing the new control arm and ball joint I could not re-orient the strut to its original position. The strut is now significantly higher above the nut and will not release to a lower position. Is there a way to make this happen? Does the floor jack position have anything to do with this? Thanks. Also; if I were to lower the floor jack while the control arm is off, does this harm anything?

[TostitoBandito]

Are you talking about the actual damper/shock inside the front strut housing? As in, it's compressed and won't release to its original length? If so, sounds like there's an issue with the shock.

When you "moved the strut up", what exactly did you do? Compress the suspension with a jack, or did you actually disconnect the top of the shock from the shock tower?

Anyways, assuming the car is on jackstands, just unbolt everything and put it back together again. It's all pretty straightforward. If you have jack under the front hub as I suspect and it won't lower down all the way, either put some weight on the rotor/hub to force it to or find what it's hanging up on and just disconnect it. Get the top situated first and then bolt everything back on the bottom.