Adjusting rear travel on Specialized FSR 1998

Not sure which FSR you have, but if you post a few pictures of what you desribed, I might be able to understnd your problem better to help you.

A said:

Not sure which FSR you have, but if you post a few pictures of what you desribed, I might be able to understnd your problem better to help you.

Sure, here's some pics. As you can see, the spring is touching the chrome linkage, and keeping itself from extending any further.

Is this shock the wrong one for the bike? I just bought the bike off craigslist from someone.

Looks to me either that rear shock or the chrome linkage does not belong on the bike.. more likely the rear shock.
If I'm not mistaken, the eye to eye length of the rear shock needs to be shorter to eliminate the contact between the shock spring and the chrome linkage.
Looks to me the spring on the rear shock is already deformed, I wouldn't be surprized if the rear shock shaft has some minor damage, too.
If you want to keep the same amount of travel/length rear shock, you could try an air shock with smaller diameter shock body to avoid the contact betweeen shock body nd linkage, but I can't be certain if the frame is designed to operate with a longer rear shock than OEM length.

I checked and the shock is the original, Deluxe Rock Shox.

It makes no sense, I can't see the linkage having been replaced either. I'm going to stop in a LBS that sells specialized and see what they say.

I'm almost certain I can solve it by drilling a new hole for the upper mount bolt, it would allow the proper clearance between the spring and linkage.