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Mitch Ware Member 
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At the 2004 Jensen Nationals in Nashville Frank Schwartz shared the information for replacing the stock hood prop rod with gas struts. I followed Franks' instructions and did the modification to my car. It works great! Purists may poo-poo the change, but I doubt there are really that many Healey's and GT's out there that have everything completely stock. Strut Instructions Mitch Ware 1974 JH-5 #111119670 1971 TR-6 #CC66950LO |
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brino Member
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Now I'm ressembling my car returned from the body shop where among other things they did a wonderful job repairing the kinked hood. I decided not to reinstall the stock strut and visited the local wrecking yard an acquired a rigid support rod and bracket from an older Ford Tempo. It's installed now & works great as it supports the hood at the front and allows the hood to be raised about 4" higher than the standard set up. I'd recommend this route to all. |
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Mark Rosenbaum Member 
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Got a photo of how you did it? My factory support rod is going to fail some day soon and I'm considering alternatives to just replacing it. |
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brino Member
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Can do. I'll post a photo in the next couple of days. |
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brino Member
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Sorry for delay in pic Mark. I'm waiting for a friend to pop over with a digital camera. Should I e-mail it to you or post it here? Shouldn't be more than a couple more days. |
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Mark Rosenbaum Member
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I'm sure the folks here would appreciate seeing how you installed the support, so I suggest posting photos here. If you also send me an email with photos then I won't have to figure out how to download stuff from the board. |
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kneff Member
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How high do these struts raise the hood? In the '74 J-H I bought this weekend (from Tim Fultz), someone in the past replaced the original hood strut with an old-fashioned prop rod. It works fine, but it doesn't raise the hood far enough to avoid backaches. What I've been using are a pair of wooden dowels, one on each side, to prop the hood (not quite) as high as it will go. What I'd REALLY like is a pair of gas struts that raised the hood nearly as high as the springs will allow. |
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brino Member
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Measuring perpendicular from the top of the rad support to the underside of the hood is 42" with my old style prop installation. That gives a lot more room than the stock set up. I've been meaning to get a digital phot taken & post it here, but I haven't figured out how do do that yet. In any event my installation is quite simple. I mounted the support strut base about 7" fore of the position of the original strut and the top of the brace hooks nicely into the hole on the front corner of the hood. Looks & works great. |
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Jh092 Member
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Sitting and looking out at the snow, all I can do is start to plan this year’s projects. I’ve already planned a few upgrades, but the longer I stare at the snow, the more projects come to mind. Last year I bought my JH and one of the first things I did was to replace the hood support with a two piece center mounted prop rod. While this works ok, i am considering hydraulic struts instead. I had these on the rear deck lid of my Europa and preferred them over earlier models using prop rods. I am unable to get into the instructions posted above and wonders if anyone has access to them? Also if anyone has any installed photos that would be helpful. |
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noomg Member
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Jh092, I see you've been surfing past threads on the message board. Good idea, lots of good information available especially for new owners. As you can see even 17 year old threads are still relevant today. I found a telescoping prop rod in the Help section of my local auto parts store. It's mounted in spring brackets in front of the radiator. When I open the hood I just pop it out of the brackets extend it and put it in place. It works well and places zero strain on the crease area. Sorry to hear you're stuck waiting for the snow to melt. Fortunately for me I live in SoCal so I can drive year round. |
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DonBurns Member
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Here is copy of instructions from Jan-Feb 2015 issue. I hope I am not in trouble for copyright rules. I did this and am very happy with the results. Litf supports were available from Pep Boys. On the struts is the designation RB8795059. Attachment: gas bonnet strut-1.jpg (Downloaded 107 times) |
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DonBurns Member
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Page 2 Attachment: gas bonnet strut-2.jpg (Downloaded 100 times) |
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DonBurns Member
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Here is order info from Pep Boys. My first instillation lost lift, and I had to order replacements Attachment: gas bonnet strut order.jpg (Downloaded 100 times) |
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Jh092 Member
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Thanks, that is what I was looking for. Unfortunately I could not use the PepBoys info, but the article information crossed to a Strongman #D4465 which is readily available. Looks like a straight forward installation, but don’t they all start that way. Well, we’ll see. I’ll report back when it’s installed. |
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Jh092 Member
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Sorry. Strongarm, not strongman. |
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Jh092 Member
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I was able to pull JH out and look at the hood and installing the struts. I originally replaced the original support with a prop rod to eliminate the possibility of getting the dreaded hood crease. I wasn’t concerned about headroom since I made the prop rod long enough to ad about 4”. You do have to be careful of how high you lift the hood because you can disengage the lift springs. After looking at where the struts mount, I think I will stay with the prop rod. The struts mount about 5” closer to the hinges which puts more weight out beyond the hinge points. Also, the hood is fairly flat across the hinge points which could be prone to creasing if leaned on or pulled to quickly. Granted the struts are a “soft” mounting point and should collapse before the hood creases. It might be a moot point, but I think I’ll stay with my 2 piece prop rod. |
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