NASA HOOD SPRINGS

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Spoke too soon. All of a sudden they don't want to hold the hood up. Frustrating....

Thinking of those billet hinges with the gas lift struts but no idea if they are really strong enough to hold up a ram air hood. Anyone had direct experience?

Greg

 
I have replaced those hood springs and every time they are not strong enough to hold w/my nasa hood w/functional ram air. As by my experience they hold up the stock non hood scoop. Never thought of a 71 F truck hood but may make sense, not larger like torinos are. Its worth a try. I dont think they are that in demand and on the trucks are built for heavy duty trucks. As there are no medium fords that are holding up the steel nasa s. The designer shinoda never anticipated for the biggest mustang ever made. Probably was one of those design flaws that ford just figured not worth entertaining and just something of another thing to hold against the desiger behind the scenes to back why the ceo canned larry shinoda at a time when the auto industry began w/the original smaller sports cars. Though when ford came to reckoning that w/the epa s more stringent pollution laws and the upperd turn for price of gas. Can not figure out why gm brought out the huge camaro in 70 but to keep them grinding them out in latter years except that they got lost in the competition w/ford s dinosaur named that by iaccoca for the 71-3s. Then the cost in retooling w/a designer that could ease like the smaller camaros of the 90+s. The cost of the upgrades as mpefi s and from drum to disc brakes...independant suspensions like the mustang IIs however ford never made much acclaim of them until changing the design again toward the end of the 70s. Looking at the 74-80? corvettes utilized the frame off the camaros of which supported the big and heavy fisher body though. I can not guestimate aside that i feel ford had better gurus that predicted how the internatimal market looked more at smaller and lighter cars for faster and better mpg ie toyotas copy cat design of the 76 celica ie looked like the earlier mustangs of mid+ 60s..

 
I have replaced those hood springs and every time they are not strong enough to hold w/my nasa hood w/functional ram air. As by my experience they hold up the stock non hood scoop. Never thought of a 71 F truck hood but may make sense, not larger like torinos are. Its worth a try. I dont think they are that in demand and on the trucks are built for heavy duty trucks. As there are no medium fords that are holding up the steel nasa s. The designer shinoda never anticipated for the biggest mustang ever made. Probably was one of those design flaws that ford just figured not worth entertaining and just something of another thing to hold against the desiger behind the scenes to back why the ceo canned larry shinoda at a time when the auto industry began w/the original smaller sports cars. Though when ford came to reckoning that w/the epa s more stringent pollution laws and the upperd turn for price of gas. Can not figure out why gm brought out the huge camaro in 70 but to keep them grinding them out in latter years except that they got lost in the competition w/ford s dinosaur named that by iaccoca for the 71-3s. Then the cost in retooling w/a designer that could ease like the smaller camaros of the 90+s. The cost of the upgrades as mpefi s and from drum to disc brakes...independant suspensions like the mustang IIs however ford never made much acclaim of them until changing the design again toward the end of the 70s. Looking at the 74-80? corvettes utilized the frame off the camaros of which supported the big and heavy fisher body though. I can not guestimate aside that i feel ford had better gurus that predicted how the internatimal market looked more at smaller and lighter cars for faster and better mpg ie toyotas copy cat design of the 76 celica ie looked like the earlier mustangs of mid+ 60s..
Click to expand...
:huh:

Ford made stonger flat sided springs for the NASA hood

I have 5 -6 customers [ 3 are members here ] who used the new repro springs with no issues.

Maybe you have a hinge problem

 
Ford made stonger flat sided springs for the NASA hood

I have 5 -6 customers [ 3 are members here ] who used the new repro springs with no issues.

Maybe you have a hinge problem

Sure am glad this subject has come up. Don, I didn't see any springs on your site, do you have any available?

My hood has a tendency to fall... just at the wrong time. Before this happened, I didn't think it would be a big deal, but those hoods are heavy. I started my car about 3 weeks ago now, and the manual choke got stuck, opened the hood, didn't use my prop stick I usually use to keep the hood open and the stupid hood fell on me. I got my right forearm above my head and one of the screws poked a half inch hole in my forearm. It also gave me a really nice bruise and my right arm looked like Popeye's are for about 2 weeks. Lesson learned... won't do that again... just thought I'd share.

 
Glad it wasn't worse

Just think if a friend or anyone had their fingers on the edge of the fender.

tnfastbk [ roy ] and his uncle's cars both are using the standard springs

Roy was actually the one who told me they were working fine.

Item #D1ZZ-16789R

71-73 HOOD HINGE SPRING

Standard spring. Price: $13.95

Don

 
If you remove the springs and make a note of where the underside sits whsn installed, you can have any muffler shop put a simple tack weld on two coils. Only the most eagle-eyed jhdge wkhld ever catch that, and may ignore it as a safety item.

It has worked on my car perfectly for over 15 years.

 
I used the standard springs on my NASA hood for 12 years, I didn't know any better. It had the block off plates so I'm sure it was lighter by 5-10 pounds than a ducted hood. Anyway it worked good until I put lithium grease on the hinges, then it wouldn't stay up more than 10 seconds. I proped it up if I couldn't hold it. When restoring it, I put on a standard hood and my problem ceased.

 
finding a good muffler shop for a proper hing set up and finding the rigt hinges for the nasa hood or it might just need that repositioning ..cpy cat

 
:huh:

Wondering if anyone has found a reproduction of those out there anywhere?
Click to expand...
Did not think Ford made a different hood hinge for the NASA Hood. On parts catalogs, are standard springs and hinge however only ones I found that are strong to hold that hood is the stainless or chrome billet hinge either in Mustang Plus or Mustangs Unlimited parts catalogue. Likes 3x the price of the stocks. However, mine hold up as long as I cock the hood a little to one side. But, who is to take it for granted that at a car show, someone comes along, sticks his head closer to see the engine....and wham! The hood comes down on him, either lops his head off, whiplash, or one serious headache!

L1540169.JPG

 
I am glad I came across this. I too had a fine working hood. It opened a bit stiff. I added a shot of WD40 to both hinges. Thats was it. Wont stay up now.

 
I had a similar problem with the hinges not holding up the functional ram air hood, and replaced them with the premium hinges from CJ Pony and have not had any problems since. They are pretty stiff going up and down, and I definitely won't lubricate them after reading your post.

Scott

 
You can get some very nice billet hinges with adjustble springs from eddiemotorsport.com. He guy has a 71 and fits all the custom 71-73 pieces on his own car to make sure they fit. Very impressive bling if you want it.
Click to expand...
They also told me they had a test car but of the three parts I bought ,including the hood hinges, were all returned because of fitment issues. Nice folks to work with but nothing fit. Maybe if you buy the hinges before paint you will be good. No issues what so ever with the two sets purchased from Don at OMS on two different cars.

 
A conundrum for me... My current vert restoration has the standard rounded springs on the factory installed ram Air Hood and set up... The hinges themselves are date coded to the build date of the car, the springs looked like they had been on forever, but who knows. Interesting part is that they hold my hood up better then what some of my previous "correct" squared" off hinges did on other Ram Air hoods.

I have no intention of changing them at this point in time. They may have been changed out previously, not something that is normally done and based on the history of my car, I doubt the previous owner did so, but who knows...

 
A conundrum for me... My current vert restoration has the standard rounded springs on the factory installed ram Air Hood and set up... The hinges themselves are date coded to the build date of the car, the springs looked like they had been on forever, but who knows. Interesting part is that they hold my hood up better then what some of my previous "correct" squared" off hinges did on other Ram Air hoods.

I have no intention of changing them at this point in time. They may have been changed out previously, not something that is normally done and based on the history of my car, I doubt the previous owner did so, but who knows...
Click to expand...
Pastel I have only found the square springs on Mach 1's

I have had four - Q code [ 72's and 73 ] convertibles and a 71 M code coupe with nasa hoods, they all had round springs.

Might have been an assembly line mix up where no one ever thought to up grade the hinge spring on 4 V cars ?

 
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