'06 Navi, how to seat air-spring onto top cap over o-rings

[justin21x]

Hi Folks,

2006 Lincoln Navigator with air suspension, 132k on the clock. Long time lurker but first post as I can usually find anything I need with searching the forum. After having leaky air springs and bottomed out front-end on cold mornings, I'm finally replacing the front air springs (Suncore), shocks (Arnott), and solenoids. I'm putting it all back together but I'm having a hell of a time trying to get the air spring seated over the new o-rings on the top cap (I'm reusing the old cap). Every time I try, the o-rings are pushed out of their groove. I'm afraid that when I do get it together the o-rings won't be properly seated. The Arnott video makes it look like a breeze, .


Anybody have any tips on how to get the air spring seated over the top set of o-rings without pushing them out of place?

Thanks in advance.

 

[justin21x]

Old o-rings are 0.076" thick, and the new ones from Arnott are 0.135" thick.

Could the old ones be that compressed due to age and wear? (They aren't exactly round, 0.076" x 0.085").