Gas Hood Struts in 15 Minutes

[1990new]

Today I received my gas hood supports that I ordered last Thursday.
It took me about 15 minutes to install them on my 1990 Yellow LPlus.

Here is a link to a Video of how it works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hM2zE...ature=youtu.be


Here is a link to pictures
https://picasaweb.google.com/1050521...eat=directlink



What you need:
Two gas struts 15 inches long uncompressed and 9 inches long compressed.


I used 2 Stabilus Gas Charged Lift Supports Part# SG459031/38431 $17.10 each
(These are 40 pound force struts but I really would recommend getting 2 of the 25lb ones.)

Four Ball Stud bolts 10mm ball (3/8") M6 x 1.25 long. (Zinc)
I used AU Ball Stud Part # H93608Z/D-3608Z 2.90 each


I order my parts from: http://autopartsbylou.com


You can easily find the struts on amazon or ebay.

Best vehicles to get the ball studs from in a junk yard are 2002 thru 2007 Ford Explorers.
They will be 6mm threads on the stud with a 10 mm ball (with short pin).
I've found that these are better that the ones you can buy online (unless you get expensive stainless steel ones).
These will be found on the inside of the engine bay mounted horizontally.

To mount:
Remove the top (front) hood hinge bolt and the middle fender bolt on each side.
Install one of the Ball studs where you removed the bolts (You may want to use a washer also
but it probably not absolutely necessary.)


Snap on the Lift supports (with the compression tube attached at the hood and the shaft attached at the fender).
Popular wisdom for this is that the oil will constantly be at the end where the shaft enters the tube and will be lubricated constantly and so the supports will last longer.


Remove you old manual hood support rod (or leave it on if you wish).


That's all there is to it.


Wish I knew about this 20 years ago. These are going on all three of my Festivas.
Maybe a small luxury but I think the convenience is worth the price.

[bravekozak]

Most excellent. Great writeup too. I am going to do the exact same install you did. Unfortunately, I will only be doing this to only one Festiva.
Thank-you very much for freeing up the prop rod nylon bushing for me to mount my cruise vacuum ball.

I have already placed the order with Lou.
$56.48 ground from Kali to Noo.

[Team Lightning]

Excellent!!

[1990new]

Most excellent. Great writeup too. I am going to do the exact same install you did. Unfortunately, I will only be doing this to one Festiva.
Thank-you very much.

And thank you for lighting the spark that led me to this.

Here is a link to a Video of how it works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hM2zE...ature=youtu.be


Here is a link to pictures
https://picasaweb.google.com/1050521...eat=directlink

[Advancedynamix]

Awesome mod! I have 2 festivas with broken prop rod supports, what a great excuse to do this! Lol. I'll keep an eye out for those f250's as well.

Update: Just ordered my first set!

[bravekozak]

It appears that there will soon be a lot of prop rods for sale.

[htchbck]

Awesome! Green Car will be getting this for sure! I will probably do my sister's car as well. I some gas shocks off of I think a VW rabbit a long time ago, but this is sooooo much simpler of an install. Thanks for the write-up!

[xaero_81]

Ordered mine! Same price as bravekozak.

[TominMO]

It appears that there will soon be a lot of prop rods for sale.

Yes, the bottom is about to drop out of the prop-rod market. If you have been hoarding prop rods, dump them on eBay now and get into gold. Or Pez dispensers.

[bravekozak]

The Four Green order has left Memphis. Do you think the bottom will drop out of the under seat tray market too? No one has bought my lower seat with rails yet.
The price of gold will soon increase.

I bet you I can beat the 15 minute install record. All of my body bolts already have anti-seize compound on them. I'll try for seven minutes nax.

[bobbyspider]

this is rad bro! i need to do this in the front and the back cause my b6 rear one is shot

[freshtiva]

That's a beautiful engine bay. I had a couple of struts on my red festiva for awhile. Two was one too many but one works great.

[Prafeston]

That's a beautiful engine bay. I had a couple of struts on my red festiva for awhile. Two was one too many but one works great.

Sweet. I was just going to say wouldn't one work? There is only one holding the hatch up in the back...granted it is a much larger strut.

[1990new]

That's a beautiful engine bay. I had a couple of struts on my red festiva for awhile. Two was one too many but one works great.

Thanks...The yellow one is babied...has 94,882 miles on it and stays in the garage most of the time. One of these struts will definitely hold the hood up after you push it up most of the way with your hand. The less the distance between the hood hinge and the attachment point at the fender, the more force is required to raise and keep the hood up. With one shorter strut there is more binding on the opposite hinge, so I decided to use two. I currently have one 19.5 inch strut on my surf blue Festiva (from a Jaguar) and it requires less pressure because of the better leverage. I do plan to replace it with two of these though.

Here is a link to a Video of how it works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hM2zE...ature=youtu.be


Here is a link to pictures
https://picasaweb.google.com/1050521...eat=directlink

(See first post for part numbers and source specifics.)

[freshtiva]

With two mine could kick a fifty yard field goal.