If it's not one thing..

....it's another!
Just resprayed my spare swingarm in a nice satin black. Went to fit it yesterday, only my ratchet straps were at work along with my big allen sockets....cue a speedy trip to work to get them, only a 4 mile round trip but time wasted when you want to be tinkering.

Got the back of the bike suspended fine, and undid the various bits and bobs and got the swingarm off without a problem. Fitted the new one in the frame ok, and went to fit the shock.
The bugger would not fit in nicely and took a whole lot of rubber mallet action, pulling on the swingarm and swearing to get it into position.
Then due to the fact I'd left my extension bar at work and I really didn't fancy another trip to the workshop to get it, I did the shock bolt up using the end of my ratchet. This was fine and I did the bolt up ok.

Except when I went to pull out the allen socket, it dropped off and into the swingarm....cue another bout of swearing and about half an hour of fumbling around inside the swingarm with my finger and a magnet trying to fish the bloody socket out.

Eventually got the whole thing sorted, and could admire the new black swingarm.

Went out today for a brief trip to the shops, and upon returning found my rear shock was now leaking oil! FFS!!!

I luckily have a spare shock, but I'm not relishing the chance to doing the fitting all over again!

I was getting worried when I changed the shock spring I was going to lose the bolt, thankfully I did'nt. Phew.

Really thought you were gonna say you did a bloody big scratch on on it !
After all that.
Few

Tip: to get the shock back in you gently pry the legs open a bit with a small bottle jack. Emphasis on GENTLY!!!!
It works!
Use blue tack in the socket to hold the bolt when fitting it so it doesn't drop.

If I'd been doing that myself, I'd have scratched the swingarm, and the allen socket would still be inside it.