Hood support/torsion springs

[coupelady]

My hood will not stay open well any longer, the slightest jar to the car or slight wind slam it shut. I guess I wore it out showing it (ha, ha). I have learned the the right and left torsion springs are NLA but the complete hood tube assembly is available. Has anyone had the privilege of replacing this assembly? First off it will have to be painted. I can remember that the trunk bar assembly was a bear to get together I was told. Hopefully this one will be better. Of course hood alignment must be another "problem" on installation.

If anyone has words of wisdom on this fix please I would love to hear it. I have 3 exhaust hangers on order so a few repairs are being performed as the coupe takes it winter rest. Got a nice new dull chrome/chrome oil cap from those fellows in Australia, Precision Engine, and very pleased with its look. Done is the black M cap, hooray! It was temporary - for years. Goes on the M5 son-in-law has.

 

[OCCoupe]

I installed a new hood support when the coupe was repainted. The new support will need to be painted and will cause alignment issues. In addition it might cause your hood to slightly bow. The body shop did a great job aligning the hood; but that all went to hell when we introduced the new support. It pushed the hood towards the windshield and to the left. It took hours of adjusting before we got it to sit properly.

 

[coupelady]

Thanks for that. And I just got the hood in a really nice alignment too.

 

[jmackro]

Has anyone had the privilege of replacing this assembly? First off it will have to be painted. I can remember that the trunk bar assembly was a bear to get together I was told. Hopefully this one will be better. Of course hood alignment must be another "problem" on installation.

Yes, I have replaced my hood torsion bar assembly.

You have answered some of your own questions; for example, your guess that installing the thing is a bit of a "bear" is accurate. And yes, the force from the new/stronger torsion bar assembly will change your hood alignment. The torsion bars need to be pre-loaded, and they exert a lot of force. Wear goggles, watch out for your fingers, and don't trust the little "J" shaped brackets to withstand the force prior to installation (I had one bend under load, so I used both my old and new "J" brackets stacked up).

If anyone has words of wisdom on this fix please I would love to hear it.

There have been several threads about this process, including:

http://www.e9coupe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12775&highlight=torsion

hmm... in re-reading some of these threads, many are about welding the arms back on old tubes, rather than just replacing the whole assembly. Perhaps someone else can point to some better threads than the ones I found.

In ten words or less, the process involves pre-loading the two torsion springs, retaining the arms in the pre-load position with the "J" shaped brackets, and then attaching the assembly to your hood and body. At first, it will be tough to figure out which side of the thing goes up/down, left/right. And that's a hard thing to describe verbally.

 

[w. chen]

hood support bar

I did mine a couple of years back. Purchased from Maximillian (my orders come thru ok and price on some items are not far off). Before I removed the old support, I marked the points where it attaches to the body. I was fortunate that it didn't take long as I have done it a couple of times prior and so knew some tricks to it. Yes, you need to tension it prior to bolting it down. Do not mess with hood hinges as it has nothing to do with it. Put some padding where the support hinges fold when the hood is closed so that it doesn't dig into the paint/body. It was solo for me doing this job, but it would nice to have an extra body to hold hood while messing with the anchoring of the support to the hood and body (fender/wheel well). Protect surface of fenders well with padding to avoid paint scratches. Note positions of the old support prior to unbolting it, like which way the J hooks are positioned. Pictures would be better. Take your time and don't rush thru.

w. chen
74cs