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Posted by: tat2dphreak Aug 3 2009, 12:11 PM

one side of my trunk sticks up, unlevel with the rear quarter panel. it's worse when the targa top is back there. is there an adjustment I don't know about?

Posted by: RoadGlue Aug 3 2009, 02:47 PM

Inspect your trunk hinges. Sounds like one is giving out. It's pretty typical to find that the hing mount is either ripping off the body or is ripping in half.

There are a number of options from replacing the hinge with a stock unit or buying fancy expensive adjustable mounts.

Let us know what you find,

Posted by: jgara962 Aug 3 2009, 06:30 PM

My trunk did the same thing and the hinge mount was breaking. It finally broke all the way last week and the one side stuck up about 3 inches. I installed a JWest trunk hinge pivot kit yesterday which was more work than expected, but is really nice.

Posted by: tat2dphreak Aug 3 2009, 07:51 PM

hinge is tight in place.

exhibit A is the trouble side,



exhibit B, Driver's side is good.



Exhibit C, the hinge

Posted by: RoadGlue Aug 3 2009, 08:25 PM

You are missing the nut that holds the guide on - see bare bolt head in exhibit C. However, the broken hinge is hidden behind the big bracket in C. Get behind there with a mirror or get your head further in there. The hinge itself is behind the top bolt head (near the battery terminal).

Posted by: RoadGlue Aug 3 2009, 08:27 PM

Oh, and yes, the way your trunk is sitting makes me 100% positive that your hinge is broken. It's a PIA to fix, but it's really common problem. I had Mark De Barnardi fix mine, but he's in Sonoma which is about a 20 hour drive from your house.

Posted by: Garold Shaffer Aug 3 2009, 08:28 PM

Wayne, is this a new problem or some thing at has always been there? If old problem then maybe a PO didn't fix it correctly as I see red overspray on the trunk roller which would lead me to believe that it was repaired once before, but placement was wrong. If not then I don't what the heck I am talking about and will shut up now.

Posted by: tat2dphreak Aug 3 2009, 08:32 PM

I got my head in there... the weld is good. I just couldn't get a pic of it.

it was replaced in the past, but the weld is solid. you can kinda see it in "C"

my fear now is when it was replaced it wasn't put back in the right spot... but I can't tell

Posted by: FourBlades Aug 3 2009, 08:35 PM

Dude I just fixed mine. I posted some pictures at the end of
my 1973 restoration thread. If you can weld, it is not that hard
to fix. Jwest has a kit that does not require welding that looks
pretty nice.

John

Posted by: RoadGlue Aug 3 2009, 08:35 PM

Like Garold asked, has your trunk always sat that way since you owned the car? If so, then you're likely correct in assuming the PO did a lousy job with the repair.

Posted by: FourBlades Aug 3 2009, 08:37 PM

On one side of mine the shoulder bolt had broken off in the mount.
The mount was welded on solid, but the hinge was flapping
because the bolt was broken. The bolt is pretty skinny where
it goes into the mount. I would not be surprised if that is the
problem.

John

Posted by: tat2dphreak Aug 3 2009, 08:52 PM

I can weld it, it's cutting the old one off that is the pain for me, I don't have a good tool to do a smooth cutoff, so I'll have to figure it out... it may not be a gorgeous weld when I do it, but it will hold

yea, it's always done it, but I always seemed to have a bigger fish to fry... now that it's running, I'm looking at it thinking "I should do something about that"

the jwest kit is nice. that may be what I do, and get trunk shocks to replace the torsion spring.

I don;t think it's the bolt either... the trunk is SOLID in that position. I thought about loosening the bolts and seeing if it has a little adjustment play in there.

btw, the driver's side front sticks up a little, too, but I think that's because the hood is a little crooked. I took it off at one point and may not have gotten it back in place perfectly.

Posted by: SGB Aug 3 2009, 09:44 PM

The spring that holds the trunk open when it is raised is pushing it up- it is a HELL of a load- you won't be able to push it dowm. If you open the trunk and reach in using a 10mm deep well socket and long extension to grab the end of the spring- then push down a little, you will see the edge of the trunk lid drop back down. Mine has broken twice on the passenger side and once on the drivers side. If you do this before it breaks off, you just can use the old hinge- it is the weld that actually always fails, not the hinge itself.

Posted by: jgara962 Aug 3 2009, 10:13 PM

That is exactly what my trunk looked like. Raised on the front corner of the drivers side, and fine on the other three corners. The weld isn't what broke on mine, it was the pivot mount itself that broke. I dealt with it by not opening my trunk for two years. Curiosity finally got the better of me and I opened it and that was the end of the story - it broke the rest of the way.

Posted by: JWest Aug 3 2009, 10:20 PM

I don't consider them expensive, especially compared to replacing both mounts, both bolts, having someone weld them if you can't, and the possibilty of doing it again in 5 years when the new replacements fracture again.

Right now for both sides it is about $40 for stock and $80 for the JWest kit (just parts).

Posted by: RoadGlue Aug 3 2009, 10:51 PM

I'm sure it's money well spent, but it's still twice the price of the stock units and in this economy people will make more decisions based on $$.

Posted by: tat2dphreak Aug 3 2009, 11:13 PM

40 vs. 80 is not a difference when you won't have to do the 80 again I did this on my last 914, with the stock hinge... I think the Jwest is a kit worth getting

my last trunk felt loose when I opened the trunk, there was give to it when it was opened, this one doesn't... I think it's welded well... just in the wrong spot I'll pull the spring loose and see if it's the pivot, though.

Posted by: Travis Neff Aug 4 2009, 12:23 AM

The original mounts were spot welded, yours was replaced at some time looking at the weld bead on the perimeter of the mount. They probably installed it too high in the chassis.

Posted by: tat2dphreak Aug 6 2009, 08:55 AM

who said pivot?

because I think that's part of it... I tried to loosen that bolt to see if it has any play in it last night, and the F'r is stripped, the weld may be in the wrong place also, but the pivot is funky too...

Posted by: 9146986 Aug 6 2009, 10:02 AM

I'd 2nd the JWest hinge bracket.

If it's ever been repaired before you can run into bad metal in that area, and have continual problems with stress cracks, which can also happen with marginal welds.

The other plus about James' solution is it's adjustable. If you don't weld the original style bracket dead on the nuts, your lid won't fit properly.

Posted by: tat2dphreak Aug 6 2009, 10:09 AM

yea, James will be getting an order from me soon, I need to get my engine sorted out and then I'll get the hinges. when I do it, I'll probably get a shock kit for the trunk too... since I don't think the stock springs work with the kit

EDIT: Disregard, stock torsion springs DO work with it, I'm an idiot still, the shock kit is probably a smart move, huh?

Posted by: jt914-6 Aug 7 2009, 06:50 AM

I'm using the Camp914 shock kit. I had to remove the stock "springs" because I've got a fiberglass decklid/spoiler and AIR said not to use them with the trunklid. As has been said, too much pressure for a fiberglass lid. Also, got tired of proping the lid up with a broom.....