hood springs measurements

[Barry Wolk]

Andy,

Did you observe any wear on the spring perches? My hood required a stick until I filled in the wear with weld. There was about 3/8" of wear for each spring, limiting the ability of the expanded spring to keep up the hood. Is there any wear at all in the hinge points? Just a small amount of wear is all it takes to be plagued with hood rise.

[Mark Norris]

thank you for that and i did send the guy on ebay a message

can you get me the over all length of the springs and the lengths of the hooks from the coils?

Thank you very much for the help!

Hi Andy - two points

1) its very difficult to accurately measure the spring overall length on the car because at all hood positions its expanded under tension and also the hook ends are not readily accessible. I strongly suggest the best plan would be to send Holger (Forum name Egenolf) a private message via the Forum and ask him if he has a technical drawing of the replica hood springs which he had made in Germany and that should give you everything you need, more info here;

https://www.markiiforum.com/showthre...ht=hood+spring

... and/or purchase the used springs from the vendor on Ebay (I can't imagine he'll want much for them).

2) Note Barry's suggestion to check the wear on the holes where the hood spring hooks attach into the hinges. These are pantograph hinges meaning they allow the rear of the hood to both swing up and down and raise vertically up and down as the hood is opened and closed. Any slop in the pivot points or spring holes will respectively fail to allow the rear of the hood to drop far enough to align with the front windscreen scuttle and will not allow the hood to stay up properly. You can rotate the hinge slightly on its mount bolts to compensate (front of the hinge upward, rear of the spring downward) if its only minor wear but beyond that its a case of rebuilding the hinges by a specialist.

Even with good hinges I still always use a temporary hood prop to relieve the stress on the hood skin behind the hinges, I'm afraid the whole hood hinge and spring arrangement on the Mkii is something of a weak point in the design. I suspect the hood is larger and heavier than most other designs Ford had at the time and like any new car it was rushed a bit in certain areas (I doubt anyone wanted to spend a lot of time on the hood hinges when there are other more interesting/visible parts of the new body to get right).

[Barry Wolk]

Interesting. You point out flaws in the designs of systems all the time and people take it in stride and I point out flaws in the design and I’m ruining the value of the cars. Seems odd. I think we both provide the same info, taken differently.

[Barry Wolk]

When I got my car 20 years ago the hood wouldn?t stay up. Many people were claiming that the only way to keep the hood up was to rinse the hinge points in alcohol to wash away any lubrication. They were advocating friction as the fix. Bad advice is always bad.

[Roger Zimmermann]

Many people were claiming that the only way to keep the hood up was to rinse the hinge points in alcohol to wash away any lubrication. They were advocating friction as the fix. Bad advice is always bad.

It was really a bad advice!

[patsbodyshop]

Hi Andy - two points

1) its very difficult to accurately measure the spring overall length on the car because at all hood positions its expanded under tension and also the hook ends are not readily accessible. I strongly suggest the best plan would be to send Holger (Forum name Egenolf) a private message via the Forum and ask him if he has a technical drawing of the replica hood springs which he had made in Germany and that should give you everything you need, more info here;

https://www.markiiforum.com/showthre...ht=hood+spring

... and/or purchase the used springs from the vendor on Ebay (I can't imagine he'll want much for them).

2) Note Barry's suggestion to check the wear on the holes where the hood spring hooks attach into the hinges. These are pantograph hinges meaning they allow the rear of the hood to both swing up and down and raise vertically up and down as the hood is opened and closed. Any slop in the pivot points or spring holes will respectively fail to allow the rear of the hood to drop far enough to align with the front windscreen scuttle and will not allow the hood to stay up properly. You can rotate the hinge slightly on its mount bolts to compensate (front of the hinge upward, rear of the spring downward) if its only minor wear but beyond that its a case of rebuilding the hinges by a specialist.

Even with good hinges I still always use a temporary hood prop to relieve the stress on the hood skin behind the hinges, I'm afraid the whole hood hinge and spring arrangement on the Mkii is something of a weak point in the design. I suspect the hood is larger and heavier than most other designs Ford had at the time and like any new car it was rushed a bit in certain areas (I doubt anyone wanted to spend a lot of time on the hood hinges when there are other more interesting/visible parts of the new body to get right).

i have messaged egenolf with no reply just was hopping to find someone that had a spring off

i am well aware of the spots the springs ware in to the hinge ill be welding them up and pulling the caps off the pivot points to see what needs to be fixed there. whoever at ford thought it would be funny to braze the caps on..... unless that was not done originally and they guys that still have the springs did it...

[Barry Wolk]

They are rivets. They are not brazed.

[Mark Norris]

I've emailed Holger on your behalf and see what drawings etc. he may have ...he's a great guy but quite busy on a frame up restoration of his Mkii.

[Egenolf]

Hello all,

I am sorry but I got no message until Mark sent me a mail today.

Here in Hannover we have a company that is able to produce the springs. They do not need a drawing for this, just a sample.

You can see the dimensions of the spring in the attached pictures:

Length overall: 27,6 cm



Length of the windings: 17,0 cm



It is certainly possible to order some springs here, I think the costs including shipping to the US are approximately 250$, I have to check more details first.

However, you should check beforehand whether it is due to the springs or the hinge.

[Barry Wolk]

I believe no one will send him rebuilt hinges without cores, including the springs.