I have pondered this ever since I took them off and now its finally time to re-install them. Whats the hot trick to putting these back on? Just trying to avoid more bloody knuckles. Thanks in advance!
I would also like to know. National chevrolet assoc. makes a hood spring removal tool, can it also be used for intallation? I took mine off with the good ol' pry bar.
yes that tool is used to install the spring...but you must use the tool to remove the spring and leave the spring in the tool untill you reinstall them. that is why they sell them in pairs.
Mandrill, now that your spring is off of the car you will have to strech it some way and hold it that way to reinstall it
I got them off with a long pry bar and have devised a couple of poor boy plans of attack but I know there has to be a more reward and less risk way of doing it. Someone out there has a trick.....
This may not be of any help. But.... Trampolines come with a tool for installing all the springs. It has a round handle you grip with a straight rod that's curved on the end for putting in the spring's "hook" end to stretch it. You put one end of the spring in the hole and then use the tool to stretch the spring to get the "hook" in the other hole. You could probably make a tool pretty easy. ***Edited To Add*** I would probably put the top "hook" in first and use the tool to pull down (stretch the spring) to the bottom hole. It seems like that would be a lot easier than trying to stretch the spring up.
Whatever you do, please video it and post it here. Something funny HAS to happen when you're stretching hood springs that much.
i think this gets brought up about every 6 months. I would think there should be something in the ...search function about it.. I have my own way of dealing with this issue..but i would have to show it to you..because it doesnt come across in words typed, too well. those tools for doing the job work ok, if you use them right. but i dont own any of them..i have some ive made myself..once you play around with or learn the physics of them its not that big a deal.
i've seen people open the hood and put spacers of some sort in between the coils of the spring so it won't compress when you close the hood.
I took a 3/4" piece of gas pipe and bent it slightly, about the radius of a tire. I cut a slot in one side of the end on the outside of the radius'd pipe to hook onto the hinge hook. Hook the spring onto the pipe, and as you pull up on it - the spring rides along the pipe and lands on the hinge hook. It's the best idea I came up with to get the leverage you need. BTW: You have to expand the spring to get the installation tools to work anyway, I don't like the idea of having a loaded spring in my hand that could slip off the installation tools they sell.
1.use washers, and put them in between each coil after you get all the washers in it should be extended 3-4 inches 2.install and lift hood all the way up. 3.pickup the 50 washers that just fell on the floor
I've done the washer method, but I prefer using a paint stirring stick cut into 1.5" long pieces. 4-5 pieces wedged between the coils on each spring, install the springs, open the hood, pick up the wedges, and you're done. Less crap to pick up when you open the hood, and they don't roll all over the place when they hit the floor. And if one ends up not making it to the floor, it doesn't rattle around.
I made a tool out of some angle iron with a couple of pieces welded on each end at just the right length and at a slight angle. I hook the spring on the axle of my floor jack and to the axle near the lifting pad. I expand the spring, put in the tool between the coils, and then zip tie it in place. Put the spring in place on the hinge assembly and remove the tool. I can take a picture if you need it. I think I got the idea here on the HAMB. John
you can make simple tool cheap. i have no idea how to explain are drw one and then post it here. give me a call on my cell this weekend and i will walk you thru it. then you can post it. 817-308-2559 that will be texas time. call before 8 pm s that is when i take the pain pills and i start sluring my words. i have one here i think. dfw area.
If you've already got them out this is the way to go (using the floor jack). I bought the "tool" from The Car Shop in Orange, CA but it's really just two halves of a pipe with welded on ends that slip into the coils (similar to the piece in the link).
I should have videoed the removal. That was exciting enough. The angle iron was my first idea, or an allthread contraption but I'm not too keen on the spring sliding out at an inopportune time but I agree that zip ties will serve as the safety. Thanks for all of the advice, I guess if it was easy or you couldn't get tetanus doing this shit it wouldn't be any fun.
I bolted a heavy duty eyelet through a 6x6 thats attached to my shop wall, hooked one end of the spring through it. Then I hooked a comealong to the other end and hooked it to a post, and started cranking. Than you can install the spring tool. I know it sounds kinda dicey, but it worked. You could build the spring tool, from some pipe cut in half long ways. Than weld a lip on each end.(half heavy washers) You just put the lip between the spring coils near the end. You make it long enough to hold the spring open the width you need. I can send you pics if needed.
hook one end off the spring to your floor jacks front axle, hook the other end to the lip on the part that goes against the frame. pump until the spring is JUST long enough to put on the car, now fill all those spaces between the coils with screws, nails, and whatever crap you have laying around the shop. Release the jack. open the hood, and place the springs where they belong. Now, simply close the hood, and all the screws will fall out...
Ya, just pull it apart and put it back on... I think a floor jack works best but make sure whatever devise you used to hold it 'open' is reliable 'cause that thing will take your head off!
Here is a link to a page that shows the tool for removing them and it has a link to a video showing how to stretch them abd get them back on the tool. http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/miscellaneous/hoodspring.htm Hope this helps! Be careful.
hey the pic on that page is mine. i'd recognize my floor jack anywhere. they must have stolen that pic from here. i posted a number of years ago. later jim
x2 3/4 angle scrap. 14" long or so per side with a ridge cut into it. I slid it down, opened and closed the hood some to work it into place, and when the time comes, they will fit right back in.
i used a 3 foot bar with a chain welded on it where the hood spring lines up and one end went under the frame and step on the other end, the spring will hook through a chain link then step down on it and hook it into the hole then cyt that chain link off done it took me 20 min to make the tool and have both springs on
When I replace hood springs I have a ton of broken paint sticks in a couple inch pieces . Get the spring stretched out and place the paint stick pieces between each coil. Works for most applications.
back in the day we hooked the spring on a piece of pipe and leveraged across the fender that is why a lot of them have creases across the top of the fender. ( not a recommendation)
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