Lift Gate Supports:cooney's Invisible Gas Struts (part Deux) (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Jun 4, 2007
Threads
7
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Location
Forest Grove, Oregon
Just completed installing gas lift struts inside my stock lift gate supports (per Cooney's '06 post, locatable by searching NAPA part 819-5565 in this forum).

Cooney did his homework, and it works perfectly. Only have a few things to add:

Before you remove your chrome supports from the vehicle, make a note of how much they are compressed when the gate is closed. On mine, the top of the chrome locking nut just touches the bottom of the phillips head that is the set screw for the chrome upper bracket plug of the support.

Remove the supports with brackets as complete units, remove the set srews and unscrew the chrome cap and plug from each end. DO NOT mix and match your end pieces! (The set screw holes were drilled after assembly, apparently, and end pieces are dedicated!) Best to do one support modification completely before doing the other one. Remove the spring and the white nylon spacer (might need a gun cleaning rod to push the spacer out). Save the springs and spacers in case you want to return to manual labor toward your lift gate someday. :)

I left the end pieces on the NAPA 819-5565 gas strut, but modified them in order to have a "footing" on each end of the strut, instead of just the bare threaded end of the strut bearing on the inside (chrome cap and plug) of the stock support.

I sawed the tips of the plastic strut end pieces off, (about in half) and then ground them down flat so that they were only barely longer than the brass threaded grommet inside of each. This got me to the ideal length that Cooney spent so much time researching (to the chagrin of his local NAPA dealer). Then I ground the exterior of the plastic tips to a round shape that slides within the smaller diameter chrome tube of the stock supports. (You can use your original white nylon interior spacers
-removed with the spring- to guage the maximum diameter they can be. A bit smaller doesn't hurt.)

Your plastic end pieces of the gas strut now look like little black "Dots" candies with a threaded grommet inside them. This gives you a bearing pad at each end when the strut is inside the stock chrome lift gate support. Maybe this isn't necessary (ask Cooney how his are holding out), but I thought it was a better arrangement.

When you put the strut with pads inside the chrome support and screw in the cap and plug (prior to installation in the vehicle), the strut will rattle around a bit. This is of no consequence, however, since when installed in the vehicle and the gate is closed, the strut is under pressure, and when the gate opens itself, the weight of the gate still exerts pressure on the strut. (In other words, the strut no longer will be rattling around in there in either case.)

Trust Cooney's research on length: I thought that by leaving more on each end of those plastic tips, I might gain that extra half-inch of lift he talked about gaining with spacers. I found out that leaving hardly any more length on each end of the strut did not allow the gate to close. (So I installed, removed, ground more, installed again, etc., etc., only to find that Cooney was right.):crybaby:

As Cooney noted, to get the highest lift possible on the gate, 1/2" spacers should be installed under the chrome upper brackets where they attach to the gate. I did not do this, since I'm kind of a tall guy, and I still can hit my head on the t-handle even with the gate at its highest. You can still get this extra half-inch by manually lifting the gate and locking the turn knobs, since these are not disabled in the process of strut installation.

The door now opens effortlessly, and without the spacers mentioned it rests perfectly at 90 degrees to the hard top. The heart of the improvement (the strut) is completely invisible, retaining the stock appearance of the chrome supports in their entirety.

Best "convenience" modification I've made to my '71 FJ40, by far. Thanks Cooney!! :clap:
 
I'll take a pic of my totally stock looking lift struts, which, coincidentally, have the INVISIBLE struts installed as well. They are INSIDE the strut, so YOU CAN"T SEE THEM!!!! If you still want pics, I suppose I could throw some on.

Brian
 
All that hard work, all that typing, and not a single pic of this mod? :confused:

:D

I was thinking "what the hell is this guy talkin about", then you nailed it.

Ya let's see some pics, good grief. :p


:edit: Oh I get it, the files are in the computer.

Sounds cool.
 
I know what he did as I have taken my struts apart to see why they don't work so well (springs rusted in two) I was just yanking his chain about no pics of the work. :idea:
HatchSupport.jpg
 
So, they fit inside the stock spring struts? Then they are invisible!:)


Ed
 
I was going to do this mod, really, really wanted to do it, then I wrecked my 40 about a year ago and trashed the hard top.

I was so looking forward to not having to lift the rear gate and latch the nuts all the time, only to have the F#@#@ing thing come down on my head. Glad it works well, maybe later on I can try it.

The stock struts kind of did the same thing, but not enough power in the spring.
 
Looks like this thread has been stale for a while, but i'm giving the mod a try and came across a newbie issue. I removed my old stock spring struts from my '70 FJ. But i can't disassemble them! Any suggestions? I removed one end bracket easily, but the other side won't come off, which i think i need to remove to get to the spring inside, in order to ultimately replace w/ the Napa Part. Think it is just rusted in place? Or am i missing something obvious? Many Thanks.
 
I'd guess rust... Heat from a torch will help, just keep it away from the pressurized cylinders. I don't want to find out you got harpooned... Or blown up.
 
I'd guess rust... Heat from a torch will help, just keep it away from the pressurized cylinders. I don't want to find out you got harpooned... Or blown up.

No pressurized cylinders in the stock setup. I would also not use a torch on the housing. It will destroy the chrome.

I have no plans replace the stock struts on my 70 in my avatar. I leave the nuts loose and then tighted when the hatch open. Never have a problem with it falling down. Same with my 68 which I owned since 1974. Biggest problem is still hitting my head.:wrench: New struts inside the old housing will still be limited as to far it will open.:meh:
 
Looks like this thread has been stale for a while, but i'm giving the mod a try and came across a newbie issue. I removed my old stock spring struts from my '70 FJ. But i can't disassemble them! Any suggestions? I removed one end bracket easily, but the other side won't come off, which i think i need to remove to get to the spring inside, in order to ultimately replace w/ the Napa Part. Think it is just rusted in place? Or am i missing something obvious? Many Thanks.

loctite freeze and release
 
Thanks for the suggestions, guys. Gottem apart!! Nothing a good vice, some PB, and a couple hundred pounds of pressure couldn't fix.

I'm thinking of taking the struts to a shop for a sandblast and a powder coat. Any thoughts on what a fair price for that kind of work would run????
 
Thanks for the suggestions, guys. Gottem apart!! Nothing a good vice, some PB, and a couple hundred pounds of pressure couldn't fix.

I'm thinking of taking the struts to a shop for a sandblast and a powder coat. Any thoughts on what a fair price for that kind of work would run????

$10-$30? depends on the shop.
 

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