I have the popular front hood shox kit on my 914 but I have issues with it. The shox do hold the hood up in the garage quite well. But in the environment with wind, it fails to hold the hood up. The geometry seems off as if the hood is pushed down an inch or 2 it loses all shock resistance and falls very rapidly.

I find it embarrassing to have to put a length of wood to wedge the hood open while I fuel but even more embarrassing to pump with one hand and hold up the hood with the other.

These are new shox. Just purchased and installed a few months ago.

I think I've installed them correctly. If the hood is pulled down a couple of inches, it flies down with no resistance. The kit seems well designed but the geometry seems off. The shocks on my 911 front hood provide resistance no matter how open the hood is.

Question then: What do I have to do to eliminate the "falling hood" syndrom? Add the original spring? Did I do the installation wrong? Help!!

My car as it sits. The gas station I stop at always has wind blowing the hood closed. The wooden stand is absolutely necessary with this shox kit. I've gotten hit too many times with a falling hood while refueling.

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Here's Camp914's installation. Mine is the same as this.

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Here's how Sir Andy solved the hood shock. The geometry here looks better than mine.

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Here's another shock (I think it's a shock) solution.

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I've never had that problem but i also didn't buy a kit, i made mine before anyone was selling kits.

The shocks i used are 911 engine lid shocks and they put out quite a lot of force when fully extended.

Has it always been this way? Possibly you got a bad shock?

It looks like you could fabricate a six inch (guess) piece of wood and stick it underneath the passenger side hood bracket right underneath the u shaped section when it's up, so the wood rests on the inner fender.

To make you feel better, I bought new Pistons for the 911, they do not work.
I am told I can buy special double Pistons that do work,

Makes me wonder why people sell shit they know won't work, in that case pelican parts...

I bought the kit several years ago. About 2 years ago one of the shocks lost it's gas and I've been using the wood stick ever since. Finally this year I got a new set of shocks.

The ease of hood dropping was always there. When pushed down about and inch or 2 even before the hood shocks loose all of their ability to hold the hood up.

On my 911, the shock is mounted vertically and pushes up on the hood no matter where the hood is in its travel.

Agreed....... with the issue of ..won't work.. the wood block?....NO.

This solution is only as good as my 356SC hood catch system designed by, ............arguably, the finest engineers on earth.. / contrary to every biomechanics dynamic learned from birth - the inverse WTF factor ..., one must lift the lid to lower the lid... hence, a thousand tweaked 356 lids.. hence Stoddard. Can you say Booming Bidnez..

In summary: Shocks are good alternative if not in the resto-concours area -

And, having just assisted Larmo63 in a replacement of trunk rollers on his pristine bodied (not him) 914 - shocks are a good alternative to relieve clutter and weight .. all four corners of my trinket work fine every time - with shocks on all 4's - as long as you hold on to the lid being opened. Opening can be aggressive on the opening move if not aware..

Does you 914 sit in the cold and have you opened the hood on a super cold day?

I've had a few hood shocks fail due to cold weather. A bit of moisture on the seal freezes to the rod, tearing it when opened and then the whole shock fails.
Often the failure is the exact weak shock condition you are describing.

Its been warm on the east coast until this week. It was 65 degrees just last Sunday.
We open up our 911 hoods all year round and don't see failures.

From day one years ago when I installed this I noticed I had to physically lift the hood up to about 2 inches from full travel before the shocks took over. I guess I've been hit on the head enough times and had the hood fall on my open tool box and get dented enough times to want to improve this system.

The 914 is in the garage all the time with my 911. The 911 front hood shocks are designed correctly such that pulling the hood release results in the hood popping up till the safety latch catches. The 911 hood is assisted in opening by the shocks in its full travel. Closing the 911 hood requires pushing down on the hood the whole way. For the 914, I have to hold up the hood when closing it.

I'm thinking of a way to reinstall the original springs to assist the shocks. The original springs were stretched and at full open would allow the hood to droop but not fall all the way closed.

Mine stopped working too, going back to stock springs when the car is put back together.

My just failed. My car is a garaged project. I installed them maybe 2 years ago? Lifted the hood yesterday, no bueno. Mine are the fiberglass hood version. The rears seem to be fine.

I have rear trunk shocks because of the 3.2. I am on my second set of shocks. PIA.. I will leave the stock springs in the front.

I agree

I think the springs that Porsche sent with both of my cars work fine.

I don't like any of the hood shocks.

Good solution for an 84 carrera?

I use one of these on the front of one of my 911s. I have no issues with it . http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911...oot-struts.html

i had same experience as O.P. - would hold hood up, but not control it slamming down as soon as the shox came off full-up position

our supplier said there were 2 versions - one for light hoods, and sent me a replacement set for steel hoods

(no markings on either set that would indicate purpose or difference)

- no joy - same problem with "stronger" replacement set

THEN - I McGivered my problem by reinstalling old tired springs along with the shox

- works great this way - (tho it offends the Concours crowd - my answer "it's just an old race car, for goodness sake)

p.s. - 911's have them from factory ( Part #: 911-511-331-00) so they should work as designed for 911's -

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Some of the trunk shox have failed, and if I am contacted I have replaced them as needed. If someone has purchased the front or rear trunk shox from CAMP 914 and they are having an issue with them, let me know and I will do what I can to take care of the problem.
Craig at CAMP

I like Eric's solution front and rear - prop rods generally don't fail, they're lightweight and cheap. Take some measurements, head to your local wrecking yard with yer tools and do some looking...

Sweet solution, I hope he is still making them

Yup, the Camp 914 hood shocks hold the front hood up only on the last few inches on mine. They do a good at that so I haven't been dissatisfied. I think I installed them properly and have since wondered if they might be better engineered to attach to the forward hood bolt instead of the rear hood bolt. Maybe I'll remount them that way some day as a trial. This car is still in the garage so its a low priority. Craig, correct me if I installed them wrong.

However, at the fender mount they overstress and bend the spring anchors so I added some reinforcement as you can see in this photo.


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Yeah I tried following those kit directions from the above discussion name place, but copies of installation direction don't exactly help. My front ones are still in their origional package. After the disappointment in the rear shocks I didn't even bother with the front ones.

Strange how the maker/s don't comment,my springs work fine all the time and don't drop the hood on my head,a bad strut will do that.....I own a 944 so I know that well.

its just re inventing the wheel to run yourself over.
the torsion bars and springs work fine.

I did some garage engineering on the existing shox. I tried moving the passenger side hood pick up to the other hing bolt. You can see here how the passenger side has a different angle.

This changed several characteristics.

1) The hood does not open as much as with the original design.
2) One shock holds up the hood alone and provides significant pressure to hold hood up.
3) There is several inches of hood travel before the hood starts dropping.
4) The shock is compressed more than the original design.

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Original hood travel is shown by how far the tape is pushed up the shaft.

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The modified side shows almost all the travel used.

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I moved the bottom of the shock as far forward as possible using a piece of steel from an old garage door opener. The bottom securing point was moved back about 4 inches whereas the top mounting on the hood moved up about 5.5 inches. Thus the use of more travel on the shock.

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I still don't understand how this is some great improvement.

because it cost money.

A lot of stock springs are tired and don't hold the hood open anymore, even on the far notch setting.

As i said before, my hood shocks have been working flawlessly since i installed them some 10 years ago.

But mine weren't from a kit. There were no kits back then. In fact, the Camp kit is loosely based on my design.

Thx for posting that Andy. I was beginning to wonder what was wrong with mine because I haven't any issues with them. Not one, front or rear. I also, re-enforced the attach point on the fender. Makes me wonder if peeps are using the wrong shocks or incorrect attach points. Shocks are available in different force ratings, length and throw. I'm using 60# shocks on the front with a metal hood.

So I guess making new replacement springs would be a very expensive proposition?

I have FG lids and the factory springs/torsion rods would fling those open.

This is why I changed to shox in the first place. Getting hit on the head with the hood while fueling up convinced me to go to shox from springs.

I think I'd like to mimic Sir Andy's set up. What I did is not the best as the hood is not as high as I'd like it.

Moving the hood attachment point to the hood front hinge bolt did give tremendous force but limited the hood opening angle too much. The hood just didn't open enough.

After some consideration, I decided to stay with the original attachment point on the fender and move the hood hinge attachment point somewhere between the rear bolt and front bolt. To do that I needed something which would allow me to move the attachment point between the 2 hood bolts.

I decided to move the shock attachment point 1 inch from the rear hood bolt. To allow for this adjustment, I used a piece of angle iron to mount the shock attachment to the hood.

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The difference in angle of the new attachment point and the original attachment point can be seen from these pics. The shock on the passenger side has been modified.

When I did both sides, the increase in force seems quite good. Whereas before if the hood would drop 2 inches, it would start falling. Now if I push the hood down 2 inches, it pops back up. I've found I can drop the hood over 1 foot and it will stay there.

Now to test it at the gas station with the wind blowing. And BTW, I think the one shock is not as strong as the other and these are both new shocks as of a couple of months ago.


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I could easily make replacement springs, but is there really a market for them? I have never had a failure.

Mark,
I feel that there would be a good market for hood springs. They all had failed. Most that are "working" have been moved up to the 3rd notch and are on there last leg.

No need to make new springs.
I've successfully shortened the ends by about 1/4", which is enough to regain full lift of the lid.

Chris...are you selling them or are you doing the shortening service for those of us with no hair that get pissed when the hood hits them in the head while filling up?

Most do not have the equipment or determination to shorten as a DIY project. I'll post up on another thread to see where this goes.
Mark

I intend to stock pre-shortened springs for exchange, as soon as I gather all my used springs.
The shortening procedure takes some skill but isn't complicated.
The few unaltered springs I measured had a significant variation in "at rest" length.
So I still need to come up with a suitable test procedure to ensure consistent good results before I sell any.

That said, I'll shorten any that are sent to me now.
Cost will be $30/pair plus $9.95 return shipping.

I would second the test procedure. When made new the load can be controlled but the material and the tempering. You are definitely increasing the load, but somewhere there is a failure point on the mount to the body. Maye it's a large margin, maybe not. Consistency will be the key.

Ha ..these are rejected jet parts, 5 locking balls in a groove you can huff and you can puff the hood will stay in place...they had to be replaced because they had steel balls instead of stainless....the sleeves slides back disengaging the balls.
Prop rods can be a bit unstable in windy conditons..

Gravity (free), Weight (probably free as well), Tape-measure (cheap)

You're welcome ...

Those may be the tools I use, but you have not described a suitable procedure.
Thank you for playing...

How so ?

This is 2016. Screen door closers went out long ago.

CF Rod..about a 10th of an ounce. Get a couple of rubber ends, metal peg or a ball link for the ends. Strong as hell. Only one needed per car ( hood or deck). Get creative. The possibilities are endless.

In a pinch it doubles as an idiot stick and will leave a mark.

Send yours to me and you can be the first to find out.