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Lawrence -
Having done the struts on my wife's 850, I thought I would sail right throught the job on my 245. NOPE. Did the 850 including front brakes in maybe 4 hours (both sides), but the 240 took damn near all day. Part of the problem is the "Jesus nut" on the top of the strut; it's recessed to the point where even an offset box wrench can't reach it. I ended up driving off to the lab where I work to use the impact wrench to get the nut off. For the replacements, I was "crafty" and put a few thick washers (actually, I turned some spacers out of mild steel while I was at the lab)under the top nut, which pushed the nut up high enough so even a regular box wrench can grab it.
For me, the biggest nuisance about the strut job was having to disconnect the brake lines which curl around the strut, and then bleed the brakes afterwards. A pleasant surprise with my '92 as compared to the '88 it replaces is that because of ABS there is now only a single line to each caliper, not 3. Thus you only have to bleed at 4 places, not 10 or however many the non-ABS brakes had. However, mechanically the job is conceptually simple, and it's just things like frozen nuts which will impede progress. Allowing for things like that, I would allow 5-6 hours for a talented amateur.
While you have the struts off, make sure you check the top bearing plates. They should swivel freely with no stiction, looseness or grittiness. If not, replace them both - expensive, but the whole strut thing is such a nuisance I'd hate to have to go through all the labor just to replace the bearings.
Since I was adding strut braces, I also took the opportunity to get the top reinforcement plates from IPD. This is a $50 item which is essentially a piece of shaped steel which goes between the strut bearing plate and the underside of the strut tower... reinforces the area which is great if there's rusty metal there or if you have the boy-racer in you and anticipate suspension mods.
BTW, I used the Boge Turbo gas units to replace the utterly flaccid stock struts at 120k. Very nice ride.
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