Longer Hatch Struts?

[Slartibartfast]

Has anyone found a longer lift strut for the rear hatch of a WD21?

 

I'm fairly tall, Rat Trap's rear springs are stock/original, and I work out of the back a lot, so I hit my head on the rear hatch regularly. Usually it's just the plastic part, but once or twice I've caught my temple on that bottom corner, and I do not want to do that again. My current solution involves walking around like Marty Feldman any time the hatch is open, which is hard on my back, and doesn't always work. What I'd like to do is make the hatch open farther.

 

With the gas struts removed, I got about 10" more travel (measured at the bottom corner) before the hinges/roof topped out (I didn't check to see what actually hit). I took a few measurements and it looks like I can get roughly 3" at the corner for every 1/2" I can add to the struts. Of course the hatch still needs to close, and longer struts are also longer when compressed, so I can only take this so far. The standard struts do not appear to be fully compressed when the hatch is shut, so I think I've got a little leeway to work with. I considered moving the lower pivots up the pillar, to use however much compression is left in the standard struts, but I don't see a way to do that without butchering the pillars, so I'm hoping to find a slightly longer lift strut instead.

 

I dug around on Rockauto, but didn't find a winner. I found a few that are dimensionally close to what I'm after, but their strength numbers are way off (factory replacements are around 110lbs, so I don't trust 90, but 202 would probably break something). I also found a place that makes custom struts, but naturally they're 4-5x the cost of the off-the-shelf OE-replacements.

 

It does occur to me that a suspension lift would also raise the hatch relative to my head. Lifting the truck just to get the hatch out of my face is not my first choice, but it is an option, and my parts car does have lift springs on it.

 

I'm hoping for a simple solution that doesn't involve a helmet or an angle grinder. Anyone else had/solved this problem?

[adamzan]

I recall the last time I changed my hatch struts that it required me to remove the ball/stud they sit on from the tailgate and truck body, and replace them with slightly different ones that were more universal, there's clips that hold it onto the strut now. I was actually just at a store (princess auto in canada) like harbour freight. And they had all sorts of different lengths. So perhaps that would be a good route to go?

 

Otherwise I bet even replacing your springs with OE replacements would raise it up a good 3". Most are terribly sagged by now. Does yours rub the rear tires on large bumps/dips in the road?

[Slartibartfast]

That's a good question. I haven't heard mine bottom out, but I had a look under it, and I'm guessing it's supposed to have more than 1" between the rear axle and the bumpstop. The parts truck has more like 3.5". I need to get that thing stripped before snow anyway, and those should be easy enough to snag.

 

And yeah, I've got the aftermarket clip-on struts on mine already, so most struts should just pop on. I looked through what Princess had online, and, again, found just larger and just smaller than what I'm after--thanks for the idea though. I'll keep poking around, maybe some manufacturer's got the oddball I'm looking for.

[Slartibartfast]

I think I've found a winner! They're 1.3" taller than the ones I've got now, which doesn't sound like much until you factor in the leverage. If my math is correct, that should bring the bottom of the hatch up another 7.8", plus whatever I get from fixing the suspension. When all's said and done I might be able to walk under this thing with a hat on.

 

That's probably a weird thing to be excited about, but here we are.

 

I've ordered a set and will post the part number if they work as well as I hope they will.

[adamzan]

Glad to hear it.

 

I remember when my dad had his 93 pathfinder (when I was in high school) the rear tires would rub if you had a couple passengers in the back and went over a big dip in the road or some train tracks, lol.

[Slartibartfast]

Now that you mention back-seat passengers, I do vaguely remember hearing something scrape on a "shortcut" I took, followed by my friend in the back complaining that he'd hit the headliner. Collapsed springs may explain a few things about this truck.

 

Speaking of hitting heads on things, I installed the new struts today, and I'm loving the difference. The bottom corner is up by 7 3/8", and I can walk under the hatch without hitting my head on anything. I am well clear of that damn corner, which is worth the cost on its own. I only clear the plastic trim by an inch or two, but if I get another 2-3" from fixing the suspension, that'll be plenty.

 

The only problem I've run into is that the ends on the struts have a little less range of motion than the old ones, and I guess the angles are a little funny on the upper ball stud mounts, because the top joints ran out of travel before the bottoms were in position. I was able push them the rest of the way without obviously bending anything, but, yeah, that ain't right. I'll go in later and see if I can file a little clearance into them. If that doesn't work, the ends are just screwed onto the struts, so they should be easy to swap out. Maybe the plastic ends have more range of motion. That would make sense--I ordered the metal ends thinking they couldn't go wrong, so of course they'd be the one thing that did.

 

I used SE244P110S10-W (x2) from liftsupportsdepot.com.

 

Side note, that rear hatch is a heavy bastard.

[adamzan]

Sweet! I'm clearly not as tall as you (only 6' exactly) but can confirm the rear hatch is heavy as hell. Had it fall on me once.

 

I bet you could clearance them easily with a small bit on a die grinder or dremel

[Frenchy]

Along with the new gas struts it may be in your best interest to replace the coil springs in the rear. Assuming you are not interested in lifting the vehicle by a good bit I would suggest going with what's available on Rock Auto or consider the Old Man EMU 2920 springs. The Old Man EMU springs will lift it about 1 inch above factory and technically give a little more.load capacity in a way. Factory spring rate is 160 lbs/inch and the Old Man EMU is 190 lbs/inch.

[Slartibartfast]

No more binding! I didn't have to remove much, basically just chamfered the upper edge of the hole on the bench grinder. It took longer to clean the grit out of the sockets afterwards than it did to modify them.

 

RE the springs, I have a set in my parts truck that I'm going to try first. I thought they were lift springs, but I'm beginning to suspect they're just new stock springs, which look like lift springs in comparison. If I decide I need more, I may have to check out those OMEs, thanks for the PN.

 

I'm only 6'3 or so, maybe 6'4" with my shoes on, but yeah, being tall is overrated. Lots of crap to walk into up here.

[Slartibartfast]

I finally got around to swapping the springs over from the partsfinder. I didn't get as much lift as I expected from them, but they did turn a slight squat into a slight rake, so, that's something. They'll do for now.

 

The hatch corners are now 6'8" off the ground.

[adamzan]

2 hours ago, Slartibartfast said:

I finally got around to swapping the springs over from the partsfinder. I didn't get as much lift as I expected from them, but they did turn a slight squat into a slight rake, so, that's something. They'll do for now.

 

The hatch corners are now 6'8" off the ground.

That's a huge improvement. Kind of crazy how sagged the springs can get over time. I just replaced all 4 corners in my Golf and it lifted the car by nearly 3 inches... Noticeably easier to enter/exit the car now.

[Slartibartfast]

When we first got my dad's hot rod going, we discovered that it would just about change lanes when he hit the gas. The thing that finally solved it was replacing the rear leaf springs. The old ones looked fine, and I still have no idea what was wrong with them, but clearly something was shot.