At Dave's request here is my tale of strut rebuilding.
I did the back ones first and they were pretty straight forward for taking apart. I clamped them in my wood faced bench vise and heated them to @220 degrees. (I later learned you can heat them to 280 or more and still not damage the paint. Using a pipe wrench on the end cap and a bit of strong pushing I got them off. I noted that on both front and rear struts the outlet for the big hose is 180 degrees offset from the little drain hose at the bottom.
After the caps are off it is quite simple to replace all the orings and seals. The bottom cap should be put on first as there is a seal ring on the end. The top cap is not tightened all the way, instead you stop about 1/8 of a turn from tight as this is where the two ports line up as before. Using red lock tight will keep it in place.
The Front struts are another story! Getting the big cups off can be quite a challenge. As I posted elsewhere I made up a wrench to fit in the cup to get the ball joint off. The @2' length is needed to get enough torque.
The end caps on the fronts were much tighter. I increase the temp to 280 degrees and added a 5' square tube to the plumbers wrench and that barely got them to move. I also had to clamp a 2nd wrench in the vice to hold the bottom.
I would be willing to lend my custom wrench to anyone needing it.
Here is another excellent write up with pictures
https://forum.w116.org/mechanicals/6-9-hydraulic-strut-overhaul-take-2/msg96477/#msg96477
