E-Z Glove Box Strut Frabrication

Paul, thanks for posting. I was waiting for the blood and the 911 call

Have a great weekend

 

Paul, glad to see you're still coming up with innovative and inexpensive solutions for the 348. Missed seeing you at Radcliffe this year...

- Eric

 

Paul.. that is awesome! Nice work!

 

Yep I'm heading to Reading. Weather looks suspect ... like 2 years ago when I went and it rained the whole time.

 

Thanks for the video. Worked great! First time the glove box stays open in years. Stabilus quoted me $146 for a replacement strut and your fix was around $15.
Only minor hiccup came after I put the heat shrink on the 5/16th tube it was now a bit snug to fit into the 7/32nd tube. Went to a slightly larger tube and now it works perfectly.
Appreciate the efforts you put forth.

 

Awesome! Thanks!!

 

Don't throw your old (bad) glove box strut. Just insert a spring around the shaft. This spring is made of 1 mm wire and its free length was to the end of the fully extended shaft. Easy to press it around the shaft of my original strut as its shaft is much thinner than what an aftermarket strut has that I bought. The aftermarket (also Stabilus) holds at present. However, it cannot keep the open lid at its highest position but somewhat down.
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Huh - $146?

Eurospares sell the struts for £12 ($17) at the moment (was £17.74 or @ $26): Ferrari 348 TS (1993) - Dashboard - Trim and Accessories - Valid for USA From M.Y. 90: Page 126 | Order Online Eurospares

 

Miroljub, have you tried that "coilover" arrangement to confirm that it works and yet still allows the glove box lid to stay closed while driving? I quite like the idea if it works.

Phil, seems like someone has found the Stabilus number for that part which is (or was) sold in the States for similar money, but feedback was that it isn't even worth the lesser price because of how quickly they fail. I much prefer keeping everything original except in the case of obvious upgrades, but Miroljub's solution might be the best of all worlds in this case.

 

Nice job

 

It would be interesting to find out if the $146 Stabilus strut is the same one being sold by Eurospares for £12 ($17), or if it's an improved version of the original strut (and for that money I'd be wanting a lifetime replacement guarantee if it fails!).

If it's the same strut then that is an unbelievable mark up!

Fair play to both solutions to the problem - Nice work!, I would say though that for the sake of £12 ($17), and how easy it is to replace the strut, I would just fit a replacement strut (TBF, I've never used My glovebox [I always use the cubby hole between the seats], so a new strut would more than likely last another 25 years in My ownership!).

If the struts were $146 (£102) rather than $17 (£12), then I would most definitely try Miroljub's solution (it looks a bit less DIY than the brass tube solution - I would spray or plasti-dip the spring though to make it look a bit more OEM and less obvious, but that's just a personal choice).


The main point of My previous post though was to query the quoted Stabilus price, and make owners aware that if they do prefer to fit original struts rather than doing a DIY fix (that works perfectly well - I'm not knocking the DIY fixes before anyone takes issue with Me on this!), then they are available for a remarkably cheap price.

 

My original strut is Stabilus 081922 and the replacement one (from Ebay) is 1686AW. The latter is very slightly longer fully extended but has much thicker body and shaft. Still, it cannot hold the door at its highest open position.

What I can see looking at the replacement strut, it has a dual spring (gas) rate - softer from fully extended down to the last about 1/3 of the compression and then very stiff; this is where you feel "going over the cam" when opening or closing the door. The "soft rate" of my new replacement strut is too low to keep the door fully up.

Knowing that these struts are rather flimsy and do not last, I actually bought two new replacements. One works (with insufficient soft spring rate) the other does not have the soft rate at all, just the hard one so it is useless. I am going to test my coilover strut today and inform. There is no reason why it wouldn't work. What you need is sufficient spring rate and to make sure that the spring does not bind (not too many coils) before the bottom-out position (when the door goes "over the cam").

 

I actually remember that part number now that I see it. Good to have real world feedback on that piece. If your "coilover" arrangement works for you I'm gonna replicate it next time I'm at the hardware store. It satisfies both my purist and pragmatic sides.

Thanks.

 

I have used these guys to rebuild an NSX lid strut. Good service.

StrutWise sells,repairs,refurnbishes,custom designs gas struts in US,Canada,worldwide.

 

My coilover strut works perfectly. I made the spring (after extensive spring rate calculations) out of the spring shown on the 1st pic (1 mm dia. wire, 8.8 mm OD, 4.8 mm pitch when free). I cut-off 11 coils, including the closed ones at the end of the spring (see pic in my earlier post). 11 coils was the maximum I could have so that, with the 1 mm dia. wire, the spring does not bind when the strut is in its max. compressed position.

The segment of heat shrink tube you see on the 2nd pic is over a plastic "cup" which I inserted to provide better sitting of the spring on the strut body. The ID of the cup is slightly larger than the OD of the spring. I drilled a 4 mm hole through the bottom of the cup and then sliced it vertically on one side so that I can push it onto the strut shaft. The heat shrink tube is there to hold the slice together (and to hide the white colour of the cup).

I am now thinking of further improving the strut by making it compression and rebound adjustable. Mike, what do you think?
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@Miro
- if you carry on fixing all the 348 problems like this,
then 348 owners will have nothing to complain about - given that our biggest headache is glove box struts and sticky plastic.
What then of the whole 'Ferrari owning experience' = it will be just like owning a Honda


Are you racing this year ?
What are you doing for workshop as the Pit garages are gone ?

 

The sticky has been solved by Dave ("DAVE ROCKS") so, with the glove box coilover suspension by me, there is nothing else left.

Hope to re-join the race later in the season. My workshop - my parking lot.

Cheers

 

Miroljub, I can certainly see some value in adding adjustable damping. For example, under slick conditions (such as immediately after 303ing the dash) you'd certainly want to increase damping. But the problem I see there is that you'd always have to remember to set the damping levels in advance of conditions changing if the adjustment(s) is/are on the damper itself. So you might want to consider adding a remote reservoir for maximum setup flexibility. Of course, if you did that you could then adjust the nitrogen pressure in the system, thus obviating the need for the spring. Many interesting possibilities here...

In all seriousnessness, writing that bit of silliness has me wondering if there is a damper used on off-road RC cars that could be adapted for this purpose.

In the meantime, I quite like your solution. It's simple, maintains the basic stock configuration, and yet it should have a very long service life. Brilliant.

Thanks for the additional details on the spring. They'll come in handy when searching through the options at the lock hardware store. Could you also share your tips for creating the cup? I'm thinking that the cap from a glue stick or something similar might work, but no use reinventing the wheel if you have found a readily available piece that works.

Thanks for sharing the tip. Great idea and nicely executed.

 

At that point we can spend our time smugly smiling as the 355 guys fight seat ECU problems, shock actuator failures, power steering leaks, OBD2 codes, valve guide issues, etc, etc.

 

Look through your box of plastic caps (or destroy a pen of suitable diameter). These are my sources of springs and caps:
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Awesome. Thanks.

 

Nonsense. After I perform this modification, I'm going to paint it red and find a tiny little "Koni" decal for it.