So in my haste last night I put the bushing which goes on top of the shock tube on upside down. Only discovered this when after I had everything back in the car I went to torque the nut and oops, will not torque to 116ftlbs because, the bushing is upside down!\
To be clear , this is the big nut and bushing on the top end of the shock absorber rod which protrude through the hole in the fender into the engine compartment.

Here's my idea. With the car sitting normally, tires on ground etc, I can remove this nut and turn the bushing over. The spring should stay in place as it is held by the top and bottom spring mounts and kept compressed by the car weight.
So is my logic OK here?

Longer story--
Back in the late 60's and 70's before Click and Clack were on national radio, they owned the Good News garage in Cambridge, MA. In addition to fixing your car, they would rent out space and provide tools and advice too. I took advantage of this several times with my Datsun 510. The first time I replaced shocks on McPherson struts (that's what we have on our Volvos in the front) I used their space and spring compressor tool.
As I was working another guy came over and let on that I really didn't have to go to all the trouble of comtpressing the spring after removing the strut and all.
His method was easier. Lift car body, remove wheel, place jack under ball joint, loosen shock nut, lower jack and allow spring to decompress. No problem...
(unless the jack slipped out of course, and doing this in reverse seems even dicyer).
Anyway it's the inspiration for this fix...
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744 & 745 GLE's (IPD a-sbars)16v M46, 245 SE(IPD a-sbars) auto, 242Ti M46(IPD springs and bars), 745GL 8v auto