I used a piec of wood for years before I went to Pep Boys and shelled out
$30 for two.  They have worked fine for two years.  That was before I heard
of Bus Depot however.  Either way, this may be one of the few items you will
find at the local car parts store to make you happy.

-----Original Message-----
From: Matthew Pollard [mailto:poll7356@uidaho.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, August 09, 2000 5:31 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: rear hatch STRUTS on '90 Westy stopped working

yes, this is the way mine failed. Good one day and dead the next. Sort of
a PIA when it is the first day of a three week camping/climbing
roadtrip...  You will need to either replace them or rig a hatch
holder. Some people use a piece of PVC pipe with a slit lengthwise to slip
over the piston part of the strut piece to hold her open. Other use a
broom sticks or ski pole.  I just replaced mine- took about 30 seconds to
swap the new ones in.  You can get them at bus depot but boy oh boy are
they strong.  It takes some muscle to really close the hatch now.  I think
it was advised to replace both at once but not really sure why now.
Cheers
Matthew
84

Matthew Pollard             http://www.uidaho.edu/~poll7356
Dept. of Chemistry               http://www.chem.uidaho.edu
University of Idaho                   http://www.uidaho.edu

On Wed, 9 Aug 2000, K. Taylor wrote:

> The back hatch struts on my '90 Westy stopped holding the hatch up
> yesterday.  It seems like they went from 'working 100%' to not working at
> all in one step.  Is this characteristic of struts that have stopped
> working?  Is there any adjustment fixes, or do they simply need to be
> replaced?
>