Finally found the mysterious leak, causing water to trickle from my D pillar light during heavy rain, in the rear of my 87 300TD wagon (308,000 miles). The boot that covers the hatch strut/shock has shrunk and no longer prevents water from running in during a downpour. My hatch lifts and stays up with no problem. I have searched and am unable to find a part number for the rubber boots. Can someone with EPC access help me out with a part number?
While my struts haven't given me any indication that they are failing, I am assuming that I will most likely have to remove the struts to replace the boots, or at least remove one end of the strut so that I can remove old boot and install new one. I currently have my headliner removed (replaced cracked, sun baked, faded roof cargo bars) and before I put my new "used" headliner on I want to take care of this issue. I am leaning towards putting new hatch struts in for the simple fact that I already have headliner removed and it will be one less thing to worry about for the foreseeable future. Installing new hatch struts however, still doesn't solve my problem of leaking because of shrunken/damaged boot.
Does anyone know if the boot can be replaced without complete removal of strut? Has anyone replaced their boots only?
Any tips or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Have you got a picture of this boot?

__________________
Respectfully,
/s/
M. Dillon
'87 124.193 (300TD) "White Whale", ~392k miles, 3.5l IP fitted
'95 124.131 (E300) "Sapphire", 380k miles
'73 Balboa 20 "Sanctification"
Charleston SC

Hope these pics help. Pics are sideways for some reason. First pic, boot is in center of pic, this is from inside the wagon. 2nd pic is close up from rear of wagon with hatch lifted. Rubber boot has a few cracks developing and won't stay flush against opening. Will try and get some better pics during the day.

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As I recall the strut's inner most end can be detached, I think it is a 8mm XYZ bolt with blue threadlock on it so it can be difficult to break free. Then you can unfasten the other end at the hatch. If you can heat that fastener a bit to soften the thread lock that can help avoid stripping out the fastener head.

The old boot can be pulled free. Getting the new boot to seat in place can be very frustrating as there is little room to manipulate it. I'll bet the assembly techs on the production line have a specialized tool to make installation quick and easy but I've never seen anything available to civilians!

With the boot in place use some soapy water or something similar to get the strut through it and positioned correctly without pulling or pushing the boot out of it's secured position.

Make sure you've got a good solid and secure brace holding the hatch open when you do this procedure as the hatch is quite heavy and will come down rather quickly if it becomes un-braced while you've got your hands and tools in the way!