Changing struts

I am changing struts on my 96 grand caravan w/ 140,000 m. and have run into a few problems. Have the strut springs compressed, but do not know how far I should go with them. According to my Chilton book the springs should turn freely, but don't. Have read about how careful you have to be so I don't want to release stut mount nut until I know I have it right. The other problem is that the booK say's that you must hold onto the strut shaft while loosening the strut mount nut and there is not much room to do this. Has anyone changed the struts and have any guidance for this lost soul.

I recently change a strut on my 98 Grand Caravan. Not sure if the two years are the same. You have to compress the springs until it's not pushing on the housing. I have the two piece spring compressor and didn't have any problem with that. I did, however, have the same problem you described removing the strut bolt. The only way I could figure out to do it was with a pneumatic impact wrench. When reassembling, I tightened it up on the lowest setting of the impact wrench, then it had enough friction to allow me to use a torque wrench to torque the nut.