Pelican Technical Article: 911 Hood Strut Replacement

[Click on Photo]

Figure 1:

Figure 2:

Figure 3:

Figure 4:

Figure 5:

Figure 6:

Figure 7:

Figure 8:

Okay, this is one a lot of owner’s have been putting off, some to the point of being bonked on the head every time they try to get something out of the boot, or being embarrassed because the lid on their beautiful Porsche won’t stay up. On some Porsches, like my 911SC, this job is a pain in the neck (a “character builder”). Here are some tips to make it a little easier.

First, get new heavy-duty struts—there is a big difference in quality between these and the cheaper ones. I just installed the struts shown at the top of the pictures (Figure 1 and Figure 2) about three years ago, and they are worn out already. The struts shown in the bottom of the pictures are the heavy-duty ones from Pelican Parts, all everything about them is bigger, better, and stronger.

The next thing to do is get some special tools together (Figure 3). I got the huge hemostat at Harbor Freight. It and the small one are very handy for working in tight places. Another item in the picture is dental floss, which is used to tie onto small parts, so that if you drop them into a crack, they can be retrieved. There are a lot of places in the boot for dropped parts to disappear. In the picture, there is also a “pin holder” that can be made from an electrical female spade connector soldered to a piece of heavy wire.

Start with the passenger side. It is easy to do, and will get you in the mood to do the driver’s side. Prop up the hood so it won’t fall on you, pull back the carpet to access the strut, and remove the retainers and pins from the strut. A small hemostat is good to clamp onto the pin retainer before you remove it, so it doesn’t fly off and get lost. It may be necessary to lift the hood a bit, or compress the strut, to get it out of the brackets. Put the new strut in place, and install the pins and retainers. I like to tie a piece of floss onto the retainer while I install it, so it can’t get lost if dropped (Figure 4).

Now you are ready for the driver’s side. This is a bit of a pain, because there just isn’t any room to put your hand to reach the bottom pin (Figure 5). Also, there are some sharp edges in this area to nick your hands if you aren’t’t careful. This is where the special tools come into play. Remove the upper retainer and pin first, to give the strut a bit more flexibility when you remove the lower pin. You can probably remove the lower pin retainer with your fingers (Figure 6). Then carefully remove the lower pin and the strut.

Place the new strut into the bracket, and replace the lower pin using the hemostat (Figure 7) or the “pin holder”(Figure 8). This is tedious at best—it usually takes me about a half an hour of fiddling to get this pin in place. Install the retainer, and then the upper pin and retainer, and you are done!