Been putting up with a "droopy" tailgate since I bought the car, a 1987 300TD (300TDT), 124 chassis, wagon, a year ago so decided to bite the bullet...and bought new struts.

Here's a step-by-step guide to the process of replacing the struts: (Plan for at least two hours with good daylight for the job)

Find something to support the tailgate so it doesn't fall on you, crack your skull, or break your legs. It's very heavy.
I found my garage push broom to be ideal, using the head of the broom to support the tailgate and jamming the handle end into the floor of the cargo area.

1. From outside the car, with the tailgate propped open as far as it will go, look into the tailgate hinge area. You can see the strut ends attached to the tailgate hinge. Remove the metal clips holding the tailgate wiring with its protective rubber along side the tailgate hinge. You'll need to pry this wiring out of the way to get at the hinge pins. Use a pair of long nose plyers or hemostats to remove the "C" clips that hold the pin. The "C" clips are on the outside of the pins. It's probably dirty and hard to see back there...but the "C" clips have a little metal tab at right angle to the clip you can grab with the plyers. You might have to rotate the "C" clips around with a hook or bent coathanger to get the tab to the back where you can reach it. Now move the tailgate up and down until you release the tension on the pin and push the pins out (to the inside). If the pins or hinge are rusty, you may have to squirt with some penetrating fluid loosen up the pin and wait a while. Mine were not rusty and came out easily, but others have reported some difficulty with pins stuck due to rust.

2. Remove the four screws at the very back of the rear center plastic roof panel.

3. Also remove the two screws in the top of the two plastic side panels over the "D" pillar on each side of the tailgate.

4. Go inside the cargo area and remove two screws in the front corners of the center plastic panel.

5. Pull the "D" pillar panels outward at the top just enough to free the corners of the big center roof panel. (others have said it's easy to pull the whole side panel out...the edge is held in place by the window seal rubber, but I didn't do this.)

6. Pry the center panel downward at the rear about a half inch and pull out towards the rear of the car. There are two metal locating tabs that slide out of holes in the roof sheet metal. When re-installing this panel these tabs must be relocated to slide back forward into the holes in the roof.

7. Now go inside the car, lying down in the cargo area on your back...long arms are helpful. The rear of the headliner has a small metal rod across the rear of it and holds the headliner in place with three metal tabs in the roof. Grab that metal bar right next to each of the tabs and slip the bar and headliner outside the tabs. The headliner will now hang down inside the car, but not enough to see the forward part of the struts.

8. There are two plastic round black pins that also hold the headliner near the front of each of the struts. Pry those out. The headliner should now hang down enough for you to see the pins holding the front of the struts. They're much bigger than the rear pins. I found it useful to roll the headliner up as tightly as possible and clip it with a couple of small clamps or clothes pins...otherwise it's constantly hanging down in your face and blocking your view of the struts.

9. There are two metal tabs, ...again, part of the roof sheet metal,.... that are bent over the back of each of the big pivot pins in the front of the struts.....(very mickey mouse system...IMHO...of securing these pins),.... pry these tabs back out of the way so that the pins can come out. Then remove the pins from the front of the struts. They should come out easy since you've already released the rear pins. If you haven't yet removed the rear strut pins, you'll have to move the tailgate around to take tension off the pins.

10. You will be removing the struts to the inside of the car, but you'll find some wires and hoses in the way. They are held in place by a plastic ring clips that snap into the roof. Pry out that plastic clip so you can push the wires to the side a bit...out of the way.

11. With the wires and hoses in the roof pushed out of the way, remove the strut to the inside of the roof. The headliner may still appear to be in the way but the headliner is held in place by another metal rod sewed into it that works like a "bow". It will snap downward towards the floor (it's not attached to the roof) and give you plenty of room to get the struts out.

Putting the struts back in is the reverse of this process, of course.

12. Put the new struts in place and insert the rear pins. Don't forget to bend the metal tab back into place to hold them....I did...and had to go back in and do it.

13. The trickiest part is getting the pins back into the rear of the struts at the tailgate end and then the "C" clips back onto the pins. It just takes patience and several tries with the long nose plyers (or hemos) to get the pins lined up and inserted. Insert from the inside of the car towards the outside. It helps to use a long flat blade screwdriver to lever the loose end of the strut upwards into place and it can also help to have someone around to move the tailgate around a bit until you get the pin lined up with the holes in both the strut and the tailgate hinge. The tailgate is really heavy....so make it a strong person. My push broom also helped here a lot....making it easier to move the tailgate and hold it in a new position. Once you get one side done, the tailgate will stay up by itself, making the next pin easier...but you still have to "jimmy it" around to get the holes lined up.

13. Once the rear pins are in place, re-insert the "C" clips with your long nose plyers or hemo. It will probably take several tries ...with the clip popping out of the plyers several times. Just keep at it ....have patience...until you get the clip in place. One of those magnetic "retriever" rods is helpful to retreive a dropped clip. Also re install the metal clips on each side holding the tailgate wiring to the hinge....another job I found a little tricky. Liberal swearing helps.

14. Now go back inside and check the wires and hoses in the roof to make sure nothing got detached from moving them around. Put the plastic holding clips back in if you can.

15. Snap the middle headliner bow back in place towards the roof. Replace the rear headliner rod behind the three roof tabs at the tailgate end and re-insert the round black plastic headliner clips on the sides near the front of the struts.

16. Insert the corners of the plastic center roof panel inside the top of the plastic "D" pillar covers. Now look inside the roof plastic, between the plastic and the roof and, while pushing the panel forward, guide the metal holding tabs back into their holes in the roof sheet metal.

17. Replace all the screws in the plastic roof panel and "D" pillar covers.


Now your tailgate won't hit you in the head and you probably saved yourself $300-$400 worth of labor at the local MB shop.


Warren C>