In anticipation of removing the rear quarter to replace it with a nos piece, I tried to put my trunk lid back on yesterday (I'd removed it to make it easier to work on the rear braces of the roll bar when we put it in). I found that the hinge that is spring loaded (pass. side) was hitting against the inside edge of the trunk when in a raised position (which is where it sits naturally if the lid is removed). I looked at it carefully, and don't see any evidence of it being bent, yet there are no adjustments possible on the hinge itself, (it's welded in place) and there are no signs of it being bent at all. When I put the lid back on it however, it ends up being to far back on the hinge (i.e., it is about 3/4 of an inch "short" of reaching the rear edge of the fender caps), even adjusted all the way out at the attachment bolts. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o> A neighbour suggested that I wedge a 2X4 under the bend of the hinge and then pull down on it, but not only did this fail to produce any results, I'm not sure the results would have been what was needed (maybe a good thing it didn't work?).<o></o> A possible explanation of how this happened (do I feel dumb); When I first removed the lid I was concerned about somebody getting hurt on the hinge that was sticking up, so I decided to push it down into the "shut" position. To my chagrin I learned that once you get the sprung hinge past a certain point it pops the tension bar that gives it its "lift" power. Eventually I was able to reload the tension bar, and I thought that I was out of the woods till I went to replace the lid yesterday. Still, I can't see any evidence of any part of the hinge system being bent!<o></o> I'm desperate! The car has no suspension on it, so it's not like I can run it over to a body shop for help. Can anyone offer a suggestion? Thanks. John B.
I dont see how it could have bent that much without seeing some evidence. Lift your bar on the other side to its fully extended position and compare the two. Measure from the face of the rear window to the center of the bolt holes and compare. Also look at the angles. Does your bracket with the nuts slide and seat in the lift bars?
Thanks for the response Mavaholic, I took templates of the curvature of the hinges, and they match, so the problem doesn't seem to be there. Yet when I position each hinge with the straight part parallel to the top of the fenders (as the hinges would rest if the trunk were shut) and measure from the end of the hinge arms to the track that the rear glass sits in, the unsprung side (driver's) reaches at least 1/2 an inch further back (toward the taillight panel). I'm just wondering if maybe I've set the tension bar up too high, and somehow this is pushing the sprung hinge side (passenger's) too far forward? It has actually put a slight dent in the trunk rain gutter, whereas there is a space of nearly 1/4 of an inch when the unspung side is lifted as far as it will go. If you look at the driver's side hinge arm, the tension is set by hooking the tension bar on one of 4 tabs. Mine is on the second tab from the top. Ca people let me know where theirs are set? Thanks for any further help. I'm desperate and dead-ended with this problem. John B.
The hinge is pinned so that it cannot move from its pivot point. It can only pivot. The tension bar only puts upward pressure on the arm. It cannot push it foward or backward. Things I'd do are: 1. take the tension bar back off 2. see if the mount itself has broken loose and moved 3. see if the pivot shaft is worn and has moved
Questions: Did you replace the quarter panel? If so, is this the side your having problems with? Are you reinstalling the same trunk lid and hardware?
Mavaholic, I am so appreciative of all of the input you've provided to date on this problem. I haven't tried your suggestions from the second to last post yet (it's 7:25 a.m. here), but as to your last post, the trunk and hardware are original, and this is the side that is getting the new quarter panel. I haven't started to install it yet because I was wanting to use the re-installed trunk lid to help in aligning the new panel. In fact, I haven't cut the old one off either. I'll let you know what happens on your other suggestions as soon as I can get to it. Having looked at it a fair bit over the last 48 hours though, I don't think that the mount is broken or moved, or the shaft worn that much. Will check again though. Thanks a million again. John B.
