Hey, Ron! I just changed front shocks (and a lot more, new thread to follow) but what I did was completely remove the front spring. On E-Series, no spring compressor is required. Undo the shock at the lower mount with a floor jack under the end of the axle. Remove the upper spring clip (10mm wrench) and lower the jack. With the spring out, it's easy to put a box wrench on the top nut of the upper shock mount, then back the shock out with a wrench on the shock shaft. With spring out of the way, it's easy to get about 1/3 of a turn and it goes fast. 15mm on top, 18mm on shaft, but the late model ones I installed are 21mm top and about the same bottom. Odd size on Ford's late model shocks, I used 13/16 and it was sloppy but 3/4 and 19mm were too small.