Door lift struts

[n29we]

Hi All - I started a thread a little while ago about the door lift struts on my long dormant D. There was quite a discussion that developed about the various struts and how they operated, from soft lift feature to temperature considerations. I had some of the same issues with lift struts on the steel hood and bed cover on my 2006 Chevy SSR. Granted they use 2 struts per but GM could never work out the strut issues. I finally found a company that would work with me and to make along story short I have struts that will lift the steel hood slow and steady with no bouncing at any temperature with no bounce at all. I remember in my discussions at the time that we had to play around with the struts to get the correct lift strut pressure and had to make sure the strut was not installed incorrectly ie. upside-down. If installed upside-down, bouncing or slamming will happen because the small amount of oil in the body would not be there to cushion upon full extension. The struts on our D's can be very easily installed upside-down. The body of the strut needs to be mounted up with the shaft down allowing the oil in the strut to make a cushion when the strut is fully extended. In most other strut applications that I've seen there is no way to install them incorrectly/upside-down but that's not the case here with our D's. I'm new to the discussion and I make no claims to be an expert but I have experienced many strut issues with the SSR and had them solved with the struts I presently have. I have contacted the strut manufacturer again and told him of my issues and will have some struts here within a week or so. I'm hoping that with a little back and forth with them that possibly a strut could be made to slowly lift our doors with no bouncing or slamming and possibly take out some of the variable of the torsion bars. Maybe wishful thinking but I'll report back with any information. JimO

[Mike F]

Sounds interesting. I'd be interested to hear what you find out. I have the soft-lift ones on mine and they seem to be hit or miss on when they want to lift "softly." Sometimes I can let the door go and they do what they should, other times they don't. Temp is likely a factor, but I haven't yet been able to zero in on exactly what the threshold is. A strut like you describe sounds pretty enticing. Keep us posted on what develops!

[mluder]

Hi All - I started a thread a little while ago about the door lift struts on my long dormant D. There was quite a discussion that developed about the various struts and how they operated, from soft lift feature to temperature considerations. I had some of the same issues with lift struts on the steel hood and bed cover on my 2006 Chevy SSR. Granted they use 2 struts per but GM could never work out the strut issues. I finally found a company that would work with me and to make along story short I have struts that will lift the steel hood slow and steady with no bouncing at any temperature with no bounce at all. I remember in my discussions at the time that we had to play around with the struts to get the correct lift strut pressure and had to make sure the strut was not installed incorrectly ie. upside-down. If installed upside-down, bouncing or slamming will happen because the small amount of oil in the body would not be there to cushion upon full extension. The struts on our D's can be very easily installed upside-down. The body of the strut needs to be mounted up with the shaft down allowing the oil in the strut to make a cushion when the strut is fully extended. In most other strut applications that I've seen there is no way to install them incorrectly/upside-down but that's not the case here with our D's. I'm new to the discussion and I make no claims to be an expert but I have experienced many strut issues with the SSR and had them solved with the struts I presently have. I have contacted the strut manufacturer again and told him of my issues and will have some struts here within a week or so. I'm hoping that with a little back and forth with them that possibly a strut could be made to slowly lift our doors with no bouncing or slamming and possibly take out some of the variable of the torsion bars. Maybe wishful thinking but I'll report back with any information. JimO

The door struts are supposed to be installed with the body up and the shaft down. That's the standard installation orientation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0XCq4aUPJ8

Cheers
Steven

[n29we]

That's what I stated in the post. The point was that some having problems could be installed incorrectly and the owners might not even know.


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[mluder]

That's what I stated in the post. The point was that some having problems could be installed incorrectly and the owners might not even know.


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Ahh... Sorry, my misunderstanding. I thought you had believed you had discovered some alternate installation work around. It makes sense now and you are correct... it's possible some may be installing the struts upside down and not know it.

Cheers
Steven