Date:         Tue, 5 Mar 2002 11:50:01 -0500
Reply-To:     David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Re: Rear hatch struts revisted. Why do they fail?
Comments: To: The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>,
          William Polowniak <developtrust@cox.net>
In-Reply-To:  <IBEMIMEBBBEOIIGIKKAHIEAHEAAA.vanagon@busdepot.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 08:24 AM 3/5/2002, The Bus Depot wrote:
>Why did VW switch to a weak strut / strong strut combination?  I've never
>spoken to anyone who knew for sure.  Some have said that it was to support
>the optional rear wiper, but the data on the fiche does not bear this out.

Go to the source, grasshopper.  Bentley 55.4.  For those too impatient to
seek wisdom at its own pace, 55.4 as translated from the Psalter according
to The Seventy states:

"For complaints that rear-lid gas spring causes rear hatch to open
completely, such that lid is too high for some people [cf. Randy Newman,
_Short People_] to close, correct as follows:

         -- install new-type variable gas cylinders, p/n 251829331B/332 (in
pairs only).  These cylinders allow the rear hatch to stay open in
various   positions.


>will say that I have never heard that "one side raises the hatch and one
>lowers it."  My initial reaction is that this is highly implausible and
>probably the wild guess of somebody who has no more clue as to why VW made

BWAAA-HA-HA-hee-hee-ho-ho. <snicker>  Possibly somebody who had a 100-lb
hatch fall on their head when the struts failed?

sorry, feels like Friday...

david


--
David Beierl - Providence, RI
  http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
'85 GL "Poor Relation"