98 Bonneville SSEI + Air ride

So I ordered the rear struts, took them to an auto shop, and the guy said I had the wrong ones. The ones on my car had the electrical connector. Went to gm performance parts, got exact specifications, looked up FE2 and FW1, purchased AC Delco struts.Got them, no electrical connector. I read more and found that the originals were discontinued long ago, and I bought 2 rear struts for the price of all 4 of them.

This actually makes me happy as I hear AC Delco is the way to go. So, after spending hours breaking loose a giant stuck bolt, I started installing the new struts. The problem is that on the rear of this car the coil spring sits behind the strut and makes it very difficult to jack up the control arm to get the new strut in place at the top.

This gives me two problems.
1. The coil spring compressor I have is too long to fit in the space I have.
2. It seems like I'm having to go way up further than I should to get these in place.

Therefore I have two questions.
1. I hear napa is a good place to find coil spring compressors, need a second opinion for this specific application.
2. Is there some kind of release that will lengthen the strut to get it to go up further?

So, I called my friend the mechanic and he said I could just pull the strut apart with my hands and I did just that, and got everything bolted up.

The problem now is that the car won't start. I'm sure this is a result of the electronic connectors on the top of the rear struts throwing some kind of ground exception. I was wondering if anyone knew how to solve this?

Pretty sure it has nothing to do with the strut wiring. Does it crank and turn over and just not fire?

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WHITE WHINE - 1992 SSE Supercharged 236.26 ci (.040 Over) 15.090 at 90.2 MPH on old engine w/ slipping trans & melted O2 sensor - Gen 3 M62 and matching TB, Gen 2 Pully, Zillamotorsports Ported LIM, YT 1.72 Roller Rockers, SII FPR & Injectors, Hypertech Thermomaster chip w/ 160 Thermo, TransGo Shift Kit, Infinity/Pioneer Speakers & a 10" Alpine Type R Sub, all the watts, 140 amp Alternator, Ricepipe CAI w/ heatshield, Pilot Angel Eye Foglights, Clear Corners, '02 17" Chrome Bent 5's, Magnaflow F-Body Muffler and Hi-flo Cat, Ceramic Coated Ported Exhaust Manifolds, Fan Override, Monroe Reflex struts, red calipers
2009 G8 GT - Sport Red Metallic, loaded, SOLO Axlebacks, Rotofab Intake, Tuned, autodim mirror, removed intake manifold cover, HSV GTS triple gauge pod, two tone red-hot shifter and HSV SuperSport steering wheel, GXP rear sway bar and diffuser, 3.45 diff and various Camaro suspension bits, LED Taillights

I had the battery tested and they said it was fine. Took it back home and plugged it in and still nothing. Pushed it back into the garage and started playing with the abs plugs on the back wheels, thinking maybe one was in backwards or something. All good there. Got back in the car, and now nothing would turn on. I checked the battery cables, tightened them and tried it and it started right up.

I'm thinking it's just a bad ground. The trim above the windshield was rusted and had leaked on and off for a while before I patched it up. There is some water damage beneath the carpet, and I had read that there is a ground located under the driver side floor mat that can cause a faulty ignition circuit. I ran into this problem before and simply pulled the carpet up for a while, and it just magically worked.

This happens sometimes simply because the humidity is so high. I've got my car in the garage, but the air is really humid and the last time this happened the conditions were similar. I'm planning on replacing the carpet and checking for any ground wires, rusting, that kind of thing.

So yeah, I got the struts replaced with some good ole ac delco top o the line and man does it make a difference. Right now I just have the back ones, but as soon as I get a chance I'm getting the front ones as well. Not only does it take that jarring bounce out of the back end, but it adds a whole new level of stability I don't think I've ever experienced, having never owned a new car.

I had the monroe struts, but one of the mechanics at the local shop said that they were the wrong ones since they had no electrical connector. I hadn't done the research to figure out that finding those would be next to impossible and just got the ones from rock auto that said FE2 and FW1. They were the most expensive, and they didn't have the electrical connector! I did some research but stuck with the AC Delco. Very happy with them.