Front strut replacement '04 R1150RT P

I am new to oilheads so this may be a silly question but for now I'm stumped. I am trying to replace the front strut on a recently acquired '04 R1150RT P. Seemed pretty straightforward per Clymer. Take the fairing, tank and front wheel off, remove the lower bolt and upper hex nut and bushing and the strut should drop down and out. But there seems to be no space for it to do that. The swing arm is in the way and the swing arm can't swing any lower to get out of the way. Any ideas? Am I missing something?

Raise the front of the bike further and the swingarm will drop further allowing removal of the shock.

Lower the shock to the lowest point possible then reach up and remove the (lower) rubber bushing that is still in place at the top of the shock.

Doing this will allow the shock to then be raised high enough to clear the swing arm.

GIARCG said:

Lower the shock to the lowest point possible then reach up and remove the (lower) rubber bushing that is still in place at the top of the shock.

Doing this will allow the shock to then be raised high enough to clear the swing arm.

Click to expand...

+1. I learned this trick while working on a K1200LT. I suspect it works for most telelever suspensions.

Police bike hardware getting in the way?

Thanks for the advice re the bushing, but on further inspection I think the problem is that this is a P(olice) model and has hardware for mounting flashing lights etc that restricts the downward movement of the A-arm. I'm thinking the solution may be to remove the A-arm pivot shaft, unbolt the lower fork bridge and pull the arm forward to drop out the old strut and mount the new one. I'd like to try and do this without having to take the forks off. I am starting to feel very nostalgic for my old airheads, especially as my next task is to replace the brake fluid (ABS) without going to dealer as instructed by Clymer. Thank God for YouTube.

How about taking off the front wheel? That might create more room for the A-arm to drop (I'm not familiar with the RT-P setup); at the very least, it would make more room to attack the problem.
Or remove the extra police hardware...?