400i bonnet support struts

Both of the bonnet support struts are beginning to fail on my 1980 400i..these are the originals, and appear to be rebuildable as any hydrolic cylinder..any and all help as to the r/r of these will be most appreciated. I just know that some of you out there have encountered this and have the answers. Thank you all so very much...Jacques.

 

Hello Jaques
I had the same problem with the gas struts and spent most of my time keeping the bonnet up with a broom handle during stops at petrol stations, checking levels etc. Not very cool if you are trying to impress everyone with your beautifull looking car!

I found one place in the uk that regasses called SBS check them on the web they also replace which is what i did. Although i sent mine to them they advised me to replace cant remember why.

Good luck

 

There is an earlier post here for a US company that rebuilds or regasses struts. It was listed under the 400 section. I'm guessing about the 1st of this year.

Howard Musolf
1981 308gtsi
1982 400i Cabriolet
Maserati Spider
1987 Lotus Esprit Turbo
2 many brass era cars

 

Lift Strut Technology in Saskatoon. See his web site: http://www.lstechnologies.ca/

He built a set from scratch for me that worked perfect and he can rebuild yours. Give him my name as he keeps good records of other ones he has done. He needs to know the air pressure to put inside and he can use same pressure as he did for mine. He will likely tell you that yours were installed the wrong way around for the sake of the seal; just another way Ferrari maximizes maintenance costs! The seal end of the cylinder should be at the low point. Most ones I have seen on 400's are the other way around letting the seal run dry and eventually fail. If yours are that way he can swap the end pieces for you.

Ken Battle

 

Good day Jacques,

I second LST! They are great guys and truly, truly know their craft! I sent them my BB rear clam struts, and they were too worn to be rebuilt. However, with some data provided to them, they recreated the struts to look OEM and in fact worked much better. For example, they added a "deceleration" feature when the strut is reaching the end of travel. In other words, there is more lift when just opening the clamshell, then at about 60% extension, the strut starts to decelerate so that the clam reaches maximum lift with minimal "snap"...

Cheers,

Sam

 

Thank you all for your wonderful responses..I will contact LST this week..Jacques