Righto!
Have replaced the front struts with Gabriels. All sweet!
Removed one of the rears and dissembled it. No problems there.
Aligned the old verse new side by side and the new one is approximately an inch or two longer.
Figured I assemble it with the new one to see how much of an issue I was going to have to deal with.
Pretty much knew the outcome, that being the spring, once released, was going to be loose.
I wasn't let down with the spring being loose and not seated on the strut.
Wasn't going to fit it like that as it was just wrong so I reinstalled the original strut and refitted it back into the vehicle.
Wondering if anyone else has experienced this same problem with Gabriel
IRS rear struts.
Please note that the car is not lowered, has just ticked over 100 thou and has the original OEM product installed (Ford stamped struts).
Have touched base with Gabriel and there supplier. Waiting on some sort of reply.