Years ago I had the chance to disassemble all the torque struts of our fleet in order to perform a detailed NDI inspection and can conferm it's just a piston free to move inside a cylinder.
Its purpose is to keep the wheels perfectly aligned both on and off ground. Drag pins, once they are engaged in the shelf bracket, lock the shock struts in DOWN position but the cylinders, with the wheels attached, would be free to spin without the Torque Strut conecting them each other.
The extension of the Torque Strut is enough to have one gear completely extended and the other one completely retracted with no interference.
