Trunk hinge solutions? Gas cylinders?

[go-fish]

My cuda's trunk lid pops and creeks when I open and close it. I have seen a few others on here ditch their trunk torsion bars in favor of gas or hydraulic cylinders.

How long do they need to be? Was there anything you had to do besides take off the torsion bars and find a good mounting solution for the cylinders? Do the trunk hinges need a rod attaching in between them to maintain rigidity and keep the liid from "swaying" while opened.

TY,
Go-Fish

[4 speed fish]

Did you put a little grease on the sliders?

[Katfish]

 

Mine moan, groan and creak like a haunted house!

[Chlngrcrzy]

My trunk lid wants to kick to the side a bit, have to be careful when closing.     

[4 speed fish]

Mine sounded the same way.The grease worked.The only moving parts are the hinges.I would have someone get inside the trunk to see where the noise is coming from.I greased the sliders and the noise went bye bye.

[72cudamaan]

My trunk lid wants to kick to the side a bit, have to be careful when closing.     

Is one of your hinges bent to the side slightly? Usually just a tweak is all that's needed to fix that.

[72cudamaan]

I guess when I said hinge I was referring to the torsion mounting plate.

[go-fish]

Mine is bent to the side slightly as well.

[Travis72]

I used two 20" long, 60 lbs gas struts on mine (with the AAR spoiler mounted).  Without the AAR spoiler, 40 lbs works... I know this because once I bolted on my spoiler I had to go up in size.    Mine are bolted to the rear seat bulkhead.  If you mount them somewhere else then you'd need shorter ones.

No twisting since I have one strut on each side.  If you tried to do it with just one strut then you might have a problem with twisting???   

Travis
72 Cuda

[go-fish]

I used two 20" long, 60 lbs gas struts on mine (with the AAR spoiler mounted).  Without the AAR spoiler, 40 lbs works... I know this because once I bolted on my spoiler I had to go up in size.    Mine are bolted to the rear seat bulkhead.  If you mount them somewhere else then you'd need shorter ones.

No twisting since I have one strut on each side.  If you tried to do it with just one strut then you might have a problem with twisting???   

Travis
72 Cuda

Thanks Travis. I was just over at Raw_Untamed's place and we were looking at it. We came up with the same conclusion. Mybe a tab welded onto the inner wheel housing could let us get away with a shorter one.

So Travis, if you had the choice between a properly working OEM set up and the struts, what would you go with?

[Travis72]

Well with my roll bar, the torsion spring was hitting the down bars in the trunk and scraping.  It got old and was taking off the paint, so I had to go with the struts. 

It does operate nice and smooth going up.  However, if you have a properly operating stock setup (free!) versus say $40 bucks in struts it doesn't really seem worth it.

Travis
72 Cuda

[go-fish]

Well with my roll bar, the torsion spring was hitting the down bars in the trunk and scraping.  It got old and was taking off the paint, so I had to go with the struts. 

It does operate nice and smooth going up.  However, if you have a properly operating stock setup (free!) versus say $40 bucks in struts it doesn't really seem worth it.

Travis
72 Cuda

I'm going to try resetting my lid (it's been off before and my just be misaligned ) and greasing the torsion rods. If that doesn't work then it looks like struts it is.

[grimmey71]

This is one of those things I wish I would have solved prior to painting. Before the paint it was a tiny annoyance, now it's a huge fear every time I close my trunk

[Chlngrcrzy]

This is one of those things I wish I would have solved prior to painting. Before the paint it was a tiny annoyance, now it's a huge fear every time I close my trunk

I agree. i wish i had set up my hinges and torsion rods before also, now i deal with a lid that annoys the crap out of me. i want to be able to reach back there and just shut it without worrying about holding it to one side. too much play on the pivoting pins and torsion rods putting pressure, makes for an interesting time. good thing i dont get into the trunk very often.

[vinb]

Here something to look at .      welded tabs and looks pretty clean and easy to do..