I saw that on the hatch struts I replaced, on had two indented rings around
the casing where the seal is and the other one had only one.  I ordered new
ones from bus depot and they were both the same.  When I took off the old
ones I could not empirically prove a difference between them, they both had
the same closing force required.  The ones from the Depot work great but I
have noticed the hatch, only in the full up position, wants to stay there.

Jere

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf
Of Bradley Flubacher
Sent: Monday, March 04, 2002 8:20 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Rear hatch struts revisted. Why do they fail?

ETKA shows just what you say. For certain VINs it uses a single part number
for both. For another set, it uses two different numbers, one for the left,
one for the right.

Seems strange to me.

Bradley Flubacher
State College, PA
'81 diesel rabbit
'82 diesel westy
'82 diesel van
'84 GL wasserboxer

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM]On Behalf
Of developtrust
Sent: Monday, March 04, 2002 10:42 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Rear hatch struts revisted. Why do they fail?

I replaced my rear hatch struts today with the stock VW struts part #s
251 829 331A for the left
 and 251 829 332 for the right

I discovered that only one of the struts on my van was defective. The
previous owner put the right side strut on both sides. The left one failed.

I was told by the parts person that one strut is for opening and one is for
closing and that the right one is a bit stronger and is why it costs more.

I am wondering if the reason the left strut failed is due to it being the
wrong strut; that is, made for closing rather than opening the hatch.

Does anyone know for sure or if it matters at all?

William Polowniak
1989 Vanagon GL
1988 Mercedes 300 SE