Hydralastic / hydragas question - removal

[Jin]

right, I’ve spent a whole weekend on my back under the car measuring and calculating with the aim to remove the hydragas units and either fit complete coilovers in their place in their exact location or fit coil springs in their location with remote dampers (already done on the front of the GTI and not too tricky on the rear) unfortunately I can’t fit vertical coilovers on the rear due to lack of space which is a shame)

So the question

Working firstly on the rear of the car, If - with the droop stop (or what’s left of it) removed I can push the trailing arm down and all force is removed from the knuckle (the rod stops moving before the arm does) and it actually pops the knuckle out of the socket on the trailing arm, does that mean there’s no pressure acting upon it therefore meaning I can loosen / partly remove (restrained by the hose) the hydragas unit safely?
I know it sounds a bit barking but I need to remove all suspension force from the trailing arm in order to trial fit new springs in the proposed location and I don’t possess a hydrolastic pump so can’t easily fill - refill the system, if there is no pressure acting upon the trailing arm, then in my mind I should be able to remove it.
however I did slacken the 4 side cover retaining bolts and it didn’t feel free or as free as I would have expected, I did manage to get it to turn a couple of degrees using a strap wrench indicating at least there was less pressure acting upon it than when I tried the same with the car on its wheels.

Any help or advice much appreciated.