As I said above, the floating check should be with the flange bolts loosened. The pin must be out of the spring otherwise there is not much to check. I would only suggest loosening the bolts by a couple turns max otherwise there is a strong chance of actually being launched into orbit if somebody got his calcs seriously wrong. Probably better load the spring with the flange bolts backed off a couple of turns in the first place to maintain a feel of load as the spring pot is being loaded.