Positioning gas struts

[Dek]

Hi guys
Can anyone give me some tips on how to correctly position my pair of gas bonnet struts without doing it by trial and error and drilling a series of holes in the bonnet and bonnet apperture? All help greatly appreciated. (The struts themselves are the type without the end swivel joints, they just have a plain flange.)
Thanks a lot.
Dek

[jamesandlouisa]

hiya derek

i have made my own gas strut setup on my ak bonnet and boot. as though it would be cheaper than the factory kit. works really well and looks quite professional if i do say so myself.. anyway heres what i did.

company called echols or something 02476 307555 based in coventry suppliy tha gas rams to dax, so got in touch with them and got a set of 90's and 30's (based on newton poundage to close) them have nice little swiel ends on which just need a piece of bent ally and an m5 nut on to finish.

find a good soild place to mount the based of the rams within the engine bay i chose the bolts holding down the top rad mount (those with an ak will know where i mean)

i then mesured the closed length of the rams, and created a dummy closed ram from a piece of old copper tube (left over from the central heating nightmare of the year before).

i fitted this to the solid postion in the ngine bay, closed the bonnet, rolled under car and genlty threaded my arm through engine bay and positioned the other end of the gas ram setup on the bonnet. (having cunningly put some tipex on the other end so it would leave a mark on the bonnet as to where it should be refixed)

stood up got a drill and fitted the rams permanently (made sure that with a real gas ram that when in the open postion and alined with the marks the bonnet was open enough for my liking, lucky it was, other wise would of needed to find a different position for the base of the gas rams.)

hope you get the jist of this rather long ramble

cheers

james

[robinj66]

I agree with James as to the method of fitting - you need to make sure that when the bonnet is shut, there is room for the "closed" strut to lay within the enginebay.

Incidentally i used gas rams with adjustable pressure - available from RS Components

[TonyD]

I found that even with the minimum pressure in the rams they still push to bonnet back ........so next builds will be utilising the "clicking stay" or even the simple bent rod method.

Cheers,

Tony

[Purple AK]

Tony.

I "Shimmed" up the bonnet hinges with the mig welder! 6 blobs around the each end of the pivot bar (2 Sets of 3) carefully ground back to take the slack out of the pivot tube. It stops the bonnet moving under the tension of the struts when closed :thumb:

[jamesandlouisa]

i gapped the bonnet fully closed at the front edge, with the rams on it evens the gap out nicely, dont think my welding would be up to the job.

also i found that when the rams are fully compressed there is a soft zone of very little/no push, as long as your compressing the rams fully home i dont think theres much of a problem.

[Dek]

Thanks guys for all these useful tips-I've learned a lot.
Dek

[jamesandlouisa]

i have a set of front rams for a bonnet (90n) same as on a dax that i'm not using if anyone wants to make me an offer i can bring them along to donnington. you'll have to make your own brackets, a bit of bent alloy will do. (40 quid should do it).

cheers

[Dek]

Thanks James but I already have the struts but thanks for the offer anyway.
Derek

[Dek]

Hi James, me again. Since I last replied to you I have tried fitting the gas struts that I have and they do not seem to have resistance in them to hold the bonnet up. The bonnet is quite heavy (viper with steel internal supports) so I may need to replace with stronger struts. I think you said yours were rated at 90n-do you still have them? I am not sure what mine are rated at, I will need to make a phone call on Monday to try and find out.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Regards
Dek