Hood & Hood Torsion Bar repairs / adjustments

[boonies]

My coupe is in the body shop for a little work. One of the items they are working on is alignment of the hood. I have two problem areas with a few questions.

Torsion Bar Assembly:

They discovered that the hood torsion bar arm on the passenger side is bending in (towards the engine/driver’s side) of the vehicle while under tension. They have removed the torsion bar completely and have moved forward with hood alignment with some success.

I suspect that the weld is weak allowing the arm to change position in relation to the torsion bar itself (see picture). I can arrange for the bars to be re-welded to strengthen them.

Torsion bar questions:

• Is there any reinforcement that anyone has added or should it be necessary?
• The parts diagram does not show any bushings on the pivot point on the flat sections of the torsion bar arms, do they need to be tight or is a fairly loose fit appropriate?

Hood adjustment:

All of the hood gaps are now a lot more consistent, but a problem remains. The driver’s side rear (closest to the windshield) is raised above the fender fairly substantially, despite having moved the latch on that side to the lowest position. The passenger side also has an area, about even with the front opening of the wheel arch, that is slightly higher than the fender line.

Note: nothing appears to be interfering with the hood closure, rubber gaskets are not pushing the hood open. The heat shield was causing interference with the air filter, that has now been corrected by removing the center section heat shield.

Hood question:

I am most concerned about the rear driver’s side. Is this normal? Are there any other adjustments that can be considered to close the gap? As I think about this I wonder if an adjustment to the “bow” (item #17 in the diagram below) to enable one corner of the hood to be pulled lower into alignment with the fender?

 

[Arde]

Mine is also raised on the driver side. Latch adjustment did not fix it but perhaps the Bolden cable has stretched and a new one would work better.

My air filter being the carbs Webers does compress the hood insulation so there is that force, and the new rubber seals for both trunk and hood were thicker than the old ones...

Hood adjustment:

All of the hood gaps are now a lot more consistent, but a problem remains. The driver’s side rear (closest to the windshield) is raised above the fender fairly substantially, despite having moved the latch on that side to the lowest position. The passenger side also has an area, about even with the front opening of the wheel arch, that is slightly higher than the fender line.

Note: nothing appears to be interfering with the hood closure, rubber gaskets are not pushing the hood open. The heat shield was causing interference with the air filter, that has now been corrected by removing the center section heat shield.

Hood question:

I am most concerned about the rear driver’s side. Is this normal? Are there any other adjustments that can be considered to close the gap? As I think about this I wonder if an adjustment to the “bow” (item #17 in the diagram below) to enable one corner of the hood to be pulled lower into alignment with the fender?

 

[grnder95]

Hi,
The tube on my e9 hood torsion bar was badly damaged at each end so I had a local welder make me a new one, also we reinforced the ends to prevent it from deforming,
Best regards

 

[sfdon]

Pic of engine bay seals please

 

[boonies]

Pic of engine bay seals please

Hi Don, I won't be able to get pictures of the seals for a few days (body shop is a hike). The seals are all the OEM and many years old. I did not replace them because I knew from your prior posts that the new ones would be too tall. Will post when I can.

 

[eriknetherlands]

At first glance I spot that the arm is breaking away from the tube.
A common failure.

If this is only on one side, perhaps it influences the torsion on that side, causing a non parallel load, skewing the hood?

I replaced the tube by a ticker wall version, and rewelded the arms to it.

 

[eriknetherlands]

Wrt to the question on the " bolt on the flat end of the torsion arm"; if you mean the one that connects to the fender bracket; that one has an shoulder so you tighten the nut al the way, and the arm remains free to rotate around it.

 

[boonies]

Thanks @eriknetherlands, I agree that the arms need to be re-welded to the bar and have arranged for the welder to pick up the part from the body shop on Monday.

The bolts that affix the arm to the fender are the correct items, as I recall there is a shoulder area that allows them to capture the arm and enable it to move while fully tightened.

The joints I was thinking of are those joining the two flat bars so that they can pivot in the center. The are very loose, but appear to be intact. I suspect that they are not contributing to the issues, but wanted to see if others have found them to be problematic and if so, what was done.

 

[eriknetherlands]

Ahah, those points. They indeed have some slop, but I can't see how that would cause any upwards shift of your hood.

In the closed position the hinges expert quite a large pushing force on the hood, but it transmits that force at it's mounting pount, so quite far forward.

As your hood gaps near the front windscreen, and you mention that you already moved the hold latch in it's lowest position. Did you look at the other side; the hood catch? They should have a perfect 90 degree bent steel rod - I've seen these be deformed in other cars. Does yours look ok?

 

[boonies]

The hood catch is in good shape, no deformation. I had a PM from a Member here suggesting two potential fixes that they have used in the past.

1) Elongation of the holes for the hood latch located on the firewall. These latches already have substantial adjustment, this approach would be to add some further adjustment down.

2) Use care to gently adjust the hood on that one corner.

Since the body shop is going to repaint the hood I will be discussing both of these fixes with them.

 

[bavbob]

Are you making the assumption that the hood is not warped in anyway? Was it placed on a flat surface and shown to have all four corners resting equally? 50 years of heat exposure may have had an impact.

 

[eriknetherlands]

Flatness- That's good one.

Also removing parts piece by piece to find the culprit may help you indetify what's going on:

How does it sit sans torsion hinge system?
How does it sit without rubber on firewall?
Remove hood latch and catch; what now?

Erik

 

[boonies]

While I am not sure if it is "flat," I do know that the pictures of the hood are shown without the torsion bar, the catch was loosened, but it is a good thought to remove it altogether. The rubber was removed and found not to be an issue.