Hey Guys,

Brought the ^^ off another member and installed the dampers following the instructions and the hood wont close. So I went looking for some pics and most people with this have the bottom ball joint in the side of the fender not right in front of the battery and fluid covers as the instructions say to do.

Im I missing parts or something because the way I have it now it wont close.

Thanks


T

 

Are there any adjustment points? Did you try losening all the bolts a little and trying to close the hood?

 

Depending on the brand of dampers (I'm not sure about Tein), some require you to use a heat gun to heat up your battery/brake fluid covers and then close the hood while the plastic is hot, allowing the covers to mold to the shape of the dampers.

There are others like the set from courtesy parts that use different brackets and allow the damper to mount away from these covers.

 

there are no adjustment points.

and Im not worried about the covers they are off at the moment. But the shocks wont even move. The hood wont come down at all

T

 

http://www.alphanumericdesign.com/pictures/WCN/62.jpg

look where Wendy has her's mounted; mine are in front of the covers. Does this make a difference other then having to mold the covers to fit?

Or could this be why my hood wont close

T

 

Can you take some pics?

 

I'm guessing you guys jsut have different brackets, but general angle and distances that the dampers are mounted at should be roughly the same...so it shouldn't make a difference in their ability to allow the hood to close.

Well, you said your shocks won't even move right? Generally gas springs are a little "frozen" when you first use them. The very first cycle will be the most difficult to get them to compress. If you have a CF or fiberglass hood, don't risk it by trying to put more force on the hood. Perhaps you could take the dampers off, put them in a padded vice, and use a large C clamp to compress the piston a few cycles before putting it back on the car.

 

[QUOTE=jtabraham]I'm guessing you guys jsut have different brackets, but general angle and distances that the dampers are mounted at should be roughly the same...so it shouldn't make a difference in their ability to allow the hood to close.



Well, you said your shocks won't even move right? Generally gas springs are a little "frozen" when you first use them. The very first cycle will be the most difficult to get them to compress. If you have a CF or fiberglass hood, don't risk it by trying to put more force on the hood. Perhaps you could take the dampers off, put them in a padded vice, and use a large C clamp to compress the piston a few cycles before putting it back on the car.[/QUOTE]


The member I brought them off of never used them so that might be why they are so hard to move. I dont know that about gas shocks either. I'll go try it right now.

Thanks

T

 

It should have a relief valve somewhere shouldnt it?

 

I can't say for sure, but my guess would be the Tein dampers (like most) are non-adjustable. Usually, hood dampers don't use adjustable dampers since they're vehicle specific and are just spec'd to the correct amount of nitrogen to begin with.

 

update . . . wow those suckers are strong ! It took some force to get them to cycle. Now how many times would it take to get these loose to the point were I can use them ? Or can I heat the damper bodys up to try and make the process faster ?

Thanks

T

 

Usually after the first cycle, they're usable. If you want you can do 5 or so, but I doubt you would see much improvement after that.

Definitely DON'T heat up the strut body. The last thing you want is for that chamber body to over-heat and rupture.

 

I've never heard of not being able to close the hood after the Tein install. If you use the Tein instructions, the mounting point is different than in the pic of Wendy's car.

 

I know thats why I asked the question. Matt is your hood hard to close ? because I cyclied the dampers a few times and they are still every hard to compress.

T

 

What kind of hood do you have?

 

I originally had the dampers on the way that Tein suggests and there was no issue with stiffness. When I changed the mounting points, which allowed the hood to open more and therefore changing the angle which makes it a bit harder to close the hood since it is higher and the dampers are fully extended. That being said, it's still not a huge deal to close the hood. But, to anyone who hadn't done it, they might say that it requires more pressure to close the hood.

 

He's running the Seibon TS.

 

Hood dampers for the Z aren't really strong by themselves just based on the light weight of the Z's hood and mounting points of the damper. With the difficulty of getting them to cycle even on a work vise with a clamp, I'm starting to wonder if perhaps you may have got the wrong force rating sent to you.

If there is a model number on the struts, reference that with someone else with the Tein setup to make sure they're the same.

 

Yup...Courtesy has em' on sale right now! Tein is too cheaply made.
http://www.courtesyparts.com/350z/index.html

 

Personally, I installed the TEIN dampers on my fiberglass hood and they were way too stiff. The hood would flex some around the mounting points and IMO could cause cracking over time. I believe NRG has come out with some that are made for lighter weight hoods. I went with TopSecret dampers but they're a bit pricey.