V70 Rear Shock Absorber problem

I have a 1997 V70 AWD, with 70k miles on the clock. Yesterday, when going to
reverse the car from the garage, I noticed that the rear suspension seemed
"down". Looking under the car, I saw the bottom half of one of the rear
shock absorbers protruding *through* the large alloy assembly that appears
to hold the rear suspension together. The shock absorber is in one piece,
does not seem to be leaking fluid, and does not show any obvious signs of
damage. The main problem is that its bottom end is now not attached to
anything! And from what I can see of the alloy assembly (which isn't much!)
there doesn't seem to be any obvious damage (ie cracks or breaks) to that
either.

Has anyone else experienced this problem? Is it a fault with the alloy
assembly (can't think what its proper name might be!), or with the shock
absorber?

Any suggestions as to what I do now to fix it? Can't move the car - I tried
to push it out of the garage with the car in neutral and the handbrake off,
but it won't budge an inch.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions

Bill

 

Well, you have the other side to compare it to. Maybe the bolts weren't
tightened properly and have fallen out.

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)