Mx83 Bonnet Gas Struts On Ke70

[Grand Master of Awesome]

Since my Corolla has no bonnet rod to hold bonnet up (feel free to give me one)

was thinking about (for something different) getting some MX83 bonnet Gas Struts, for people that don't know the Cressidas have Gas Struts that hold the bonnet up instead of a metal road as the KE does.

 

Thinking all you would need to do is weld some metal braces on to screw the struts into.

But the Cressida bonnet is alot lighter than the KE bonnet, so this may cause problems with the struts actually working to hold the bonnet up. (MX73's have gas struts too, might be better than MX83 ones?)

 

Has anyone done it before?

Theories on it working?

 

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

(in before you're an idiot, why don't you just get a rod from the wreckers)

[Evan G]

i was thinking to this at one stage (i copped a bonnet to the head = pain) i was thinking to use some commodore gas struts and use that ball joint that can be threaded into the engine bay

[white_sandshoe]

I think the main thing to check is that there is either enough room between the bonnet and where the guards bolt onto the front, either that, or bolt them inside the engine bay, and the points you bolt them into are both solid enough and will give you the right "throw" (i'm tired and can't think of any of the right words...)

[philbey]

there's a reasonable amount of work done to design a gas strut system, BUT don't let that stop you.

 

There's two main things to consider: the actual stroke of the strut (fully closed to fully open) needs to be matched to the movement of the bonnet. This will all depend on the angle and position you mount it.

 

Then the other issue are the forces applied, need it to hold up the bonnet, but also need to be able to close it.

 

Easiest way would be to mimick the mounting position of the car you remove the strut from, that's probably the best way to do it without getting too scientific. If the donor car has a heavier bonnet, you should be fine, you might just need to put some effort in to close it.

 

Don't do what I do and waste a few hours in CAD modelling the complete range of movement, brackets, do some moment calculations then just forget about it anyway because I've got one of those awesome little mechanical cams that locks the bonnet up on my KE16.

[ke70dave]

Don't do what I do and waste a few hours in CAD modelling the complete range of movement, brackets, do some moment calculations then just forget about it anyway because I've got one of those awesome little mechanical cams that locks the bonnet up on my KE16.

 

ah you must be an engineer like me mr philbey.

 

i too suffer from the over analysis of simple ideas.

 

do what mr philbey said (not the wasted time...) just measure the distance from the pivot point of the bonnet to the attachement of the gas strut. (this might be a tad tricky if your bonnet hinges go inside of the car, i think they do on a ke70...).

 

maybe do one side first and get it perfect, then copy it to the other side.

 

in fact you may find you only need one side?

Edited February 18, 2010 by ke70dave

[LukeAE71]

I saw someone use the slide mechanism from a KE20 on a KE30 which looked neat.

 

If you want one I have one here

 

/shameless free plug :)

[edjob]

Hey guys good to see all these comments didn't help.. Nice to put up some fine pics of the work no one did. I ended up just getting an old gas strut. Didn't take long. Just had to work out how vertical it had to be to hold the Bonnet up and far in it had to be. Here is a photo 

[altezzaclub]

Well, there ya go, only took 7years to solve that problem..

Another 7years of stress testing the mounts and we'll know if it works.