Re: door strut questions (up or down?)

["janvdwouw" <jvdwouw@xxxx>]

--- In dmcnews, Walter Coe wrote:
> What is the proper orientation of the door struts?
> Does the rod belong on the top or the bottom or 
>does it matter?
[snip]
> Does anyone have an official answer?

I don't have an "official" answer, but I do have an answer;
the CYLINDER has to be at the door and the ROD at the
body; pointing downwards.
When mounted this way the oil inside the cylinders lubricates the 
O-rings at that end. If these dry out you are more likely to loose 
charge on them...
Also, if you have the dampened version of these struts there's a 
valve that "switches" to a smaller hole to push the oil through.
With the strut upside-down (rod pointing up) the oil doesn't go 
through this valve in the right way and you have less to no 
dampening.

If you look at tailgates for other cars (like my Escort Hatchback) 
you will see that in the open (expanded) position, the rod is at the 
bottom.

With this in mind it just ocurred to me that when you store your 
car it would be a good idea to leave the doors, trunk and louvre 
up so the oil is on the O-rings, or at least open and close 
everything a couple of times (for instance when you let the car 
run every couple of weeks to keep the engine and AC lubricated.)
But this is only me thinking out loud... 

Jan van de Wouw
Thinking Different... Using a Mac...
Living the Dream... Driving a DeLorean...

#05141 "Dagger" since Sept. 2000

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