Re: Incorrect door struts.

["twinenginedmc12" <twinenginedmc12@xxxx>]

Hi Mike.

Thank you for your reply. 

Yes, I did just miss the thread about this. I wish I hadn't.

You bring up a valid point about going with a trusted vendor. I felt 
the same, which is why I chose to shell out $120 to buy the struts 
from a trusted vendor, as opposed to doing my own shopping. You 
bring up another valid point about paying attention to detail. If I 
had paid really close attention, instead of blindly trusting the 
trusted vendor, I might have noticed the subtle difference in 
geometry prior to installation. I won't make that mistake again.

Your third valid point was your suggestion about closing the door 
slowly, feeling for binding. To my credit, I did exactly that, but 
could not feel the binding. I think the bottoming out may have 
happened exactly at the same point as the contact with the latch 
mechanism, which camouflaged any feel I might have had. After I 
discovered the damage, I also did the math, and figured out the 
leverage involved. My calculations indicate that at the point at 
which the bottoming-out occured, the mechanical advantage against the 
mounting bolt was about 130 times the force at the door handle. With 
that much leverage, I don't know whether I could have felt the 
binding, even if the latch weren't camoflaging the contact. If 
someone else were holding the door handle in the open position, so 
the latch cleared the pins while I lowered the door, I might have 
felt the few extra pounds of resistance at the point of binding. An 
end-consumer should not be expected to be able to apply this much 
technical expertise and mechanical aptitude to the installation of 
such a simple part, anyway.

I'm still deliberating whether I will disclose the source of these 
parts on the DML or not. If you wish to know, write me directly. 
I've ordered new struts from a different vendor, and will be 
rigorously comparing their geometry and function with the suspect 
struts. I might post the results. I just wanted everyone to be 
aware they're out there, so they could save a few hours of hassle.

Thank you for taking the time to reply to my post.

Rick Gendreau








In dmcnews@xxxx, "Mike Aninger" <mike@xxxx> wrote:
> You aperently just missed the thread that talked about this! Did 
you get your struts from a vendor or some auto parts store?