On the weekend I started clearing out the trunk in preparation for pulling
the gas tanks. About the third time I opened the trunk, the left side pivot
bushing (that the stay arm rotates in) snapped off its bracket and left me
holding the lid up. The pivot bushing bracket had previously (by a PO) been
removed from the car by drilling out the spotwelds, so I removed the bolts
holding it in place and had a look at it - it looked as though it had been
previously repaired already, and I didn't have high hopes of successfully
welding it back up, in the proper alignment. It occurred to me that the
small diameter gas struts that are being used on modern cars as hood and
tailgate stays would probably make a good substitute, and they'd be a little
more convenient at the same time since there wouldn't be a scissors
mechanism intruding into the trunk space on each side.
I went off to the local Canadian Tire and found a wide assortment of
StrongArm brand (by Gabriel) struts. I took home one that had an extended
length of about 16 inches and a strut body length of just over 8 inches - I
figured that these dimensions would bridge the gap between the existing
attachment points on the trunk lid and the pivot bushing on the side of the
trunk. The strut body diameter is about 3/4 inch. As it turns out these
little guys have very high actuating force - over 200 pounds, and that is
enough to distort the relatively flexible sheetmetal that form the inside
ribs on the trunk lid. After that I made a second bracket that moved the
pick-up point on the trunk lid so as to give greater mechanical advantage
(i.e. less closure force required), and used the rolled edge of the trunk
rib sheetmetal as an extra supporting pad. This turned out to work pretty
well - you have to open the trunk lid about halfway, then the strut picks up
and opens the trunk the rest of the way. Only one strut is required to keep
the trunk open - at least in the garage... But it seems like the over-center
point (i.e. where the trunk lid closes sufficiently that it won't stay open
by itself anymore) is further down than it ever was with the spring and
scissors mechanisms, so I should be seeing less of the
trunk-in-the-back-of-the-head incidents.
A side note: This mechanism places additional stress on the hinge closest to
the gas strut. I had to do a threaded insert on one of the mounting holes
for the hinge (it had been previously damaged), and I made a 1 x 2 1/2"
washer plate for the body side of the hinge.
I'll have pictures of this thing tonight - it appears that my ISP ate the
stuff I uploaded this morning.
Pulling the gas tanks and lines revealed other interesting stuff: I'd always
had a persistent gas smell in the trunk (and inside the car, if it was left
closed). As it turns out the upper crossover hose had been punctured by one
of the lift-the-dot fasteners, and hopefully the resulting 1/8" hole in the
hose is the source for the smell. The hose was routed through the sheetmetal
doubler that forms the upper trunk opening frame (is that stock?), and the
sheetmetal screws that were used to attach the aluminum extrusion that
sandwiches the soft-top material to the body, also came very close to
puncturing that hose.
One of the PO's must have used the right gas tank cavity as his toolbox -
digging in the grunge that collected under the right gas tank yielded three
SK wrenches, a box of fuses, and a replacement lightbulb. These were
probably the source for some of the rattles that I could never figure out.
Best regards all,
Theo
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