R&Rd rear struts on 1991 TQW

[Peter Schulz <schulz@iatcmail.ed.ray.com>]

This past weekend I replaced the rear struts on the TQW with Bilstein
sports.  I reused the old dust boots, bumps stops, and the strut
bearings.

The procedure was very straight forward: Jacked up the rear of the car,
put it on jackstands, removed the wheels, removed the 19mm lower bolt
holding
the strut to the lower a arm, removed the three upper 13mm holding the
top from inside the wheel well, removed the strut assembly.

I then removed the strut by first using a spring compressor, the the
19mm
strut bolt using a 6mm hex wrench and a 19mm box wrench, pulled out
the spring cap, bearing, dustboot, bumpstop.  Before installing the
"stack"
onto the new strut, I cut a piece of bicycle air tube to fit the lower
coil and
reduce the potential of "groan".  Reinstallation was reverse of removal.

The job was made somewhat easier by the use of airtools, the best
birthday gift
that my wife has ever given me...

Took the TQW out for a ride afterwards, noticed that the ride was a bit
firmer, and the mystery clunk was more pronounced.

Finally traced that to one of the body mounts for the rear silencer.  It
had pulled
right of off the bottom of the car.  I'll have to get a muffler shop to
weld
it up while they take care of a hole in the rear silencer.

Next projects are the intermittent guage cluster (speedo and computer)
and
installing Bilsteins in the front, then Euros, if they ever get
delivered.


-Peter Schulz
1991 TQW
1990 CQ
schulz@res.ray.com