I was having two simultaneous problems with these struts. As I posted many moons ago the pins that go into the rock shield from the strut (to hold it closed) have been wearing down from vibration. After our last trip I didn't think they would make it another (see picture - old pin is on the right, replacement on the left).
Also the pop rivet that holds the other end of the arm to the rock shield was wearing out to the point that I could just pull it away from the shield.
This seemed like it should be easy and it mostly was but there is always something to make it interesting. First no local place (our side of town) had the arms. I gave up and ordered them from the factory. Nice surprise here, they were only $24 for two including shipping.
Second, I found one of the fasteners at the bottom had a "regular" (straight slot) head and the other one had the famous TM square hole. OK, I figured that Assembler Man just ran out of square holed screws that day. Wrong, they are actually two different fasteners. The bottom one is a bolt that screws into a fitting on the trailer. The top one is a standard TM sheet metal screw. Interesting but not really a problem. Except, the bolt will not go through the hole in the replacement strut that TM sent me...sigh. Not a big deal to drill the hole out in the replacement. These two attachments were heavily caulked so I did the same here.
Last problem, I had no way to pop rivet the top of the arm to the shield, so I used a bolt with washers.
It probably took me longer to type this than it did to replace the strut (not counting the inevitable trip to Home Depot) but if anyone else is thinking about this job, this post might save you from a few surprises.
Replacing the rock shield struts
Linear Mode
