First, thanks to all the folks who provided detailed,thoughtful advice.
It has taken a little while to digest it all but has given me the confidence to pull this repair off myself, which is a great feeling and will save me serious $$$.
My process is to understand an issue and then I pass all this knowledge on to my son. Then he and I can actually do this repair.
Now that I know that this knocking strut is not really dangerous I think I am going to switch gears (pun intended) and address the bad 1-2 shift issue I posted about in another thread. I am thinking this issue needs to be resolved first because its really making driving the car an anxious experience. My goal is to get this car reliable enough that a teenager can drive it and be safe.
For now I am just driving it 3-4 miles around town troubleshooting issues and tweaking things.
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