Suspension Bilstien rear shocks

I'm having trouble figuring these out. They are 94/04 shocks but that shouldn't matter. Not enough threads to engage the nuts.

Circlip everytinh bottoms out on


You can see the stackup minus the dust boot gives me 1/4"


But the spacer in the boot is more than that. So with everything installed I have no thread



I've pushed and pulled and rearranged but can't get a nut on these. All pics I find show this exact arrangement.

Both shocks do this

Can't get the axle to articulate that far up with the spring in. Would need to remove it and then jack the axle up. I kinda feel that if that's what I need to do then something is off