I have a relatively new passenger side hatch strut for my 968, but the problem I have is that the contact that is supposed to ride against the rod to make the electrical connection is ever so slightly off and does not turn on the interior lights when the hatch is up. I have been trying to bend the tab, but access is limited since it is inside the collar. Any ideas on what kind of tool would work best?

 

Pics?

 

Whatever you do, don't twist the bottom tab too much or it will come off the grid network. It will require a silver filled epoxy to re-attach it. ($$) A REAL PITA to get it into position so it will dry and attach the clip. Tape only works partially. I kinda put this on hold after 3 failed attempts...soon to be resolved..I hope. If anyone has any tip they might want to share, please post...I am watching with deep interest..Thanks

 

Here is picture of what I am working with - the copper portion inside the plastic sleeve is very close to the rod, but doesn't hit with enough pressure to make solid contact. If I take a thin screwdriver and push down on the copper, it makes the connection and lights come on. Just need to find a way to get it to do that without help from me.

the copper part close to the rod

 

bump for help!

 

Can you put a wedge of some sort behind the copper contact? If it were glued to the collar it would push against the rod every time it went down..just a thought? perhaps a piece of nylon or delrin?

 

Are you sure it's not touching? It might just be that with light pressure it's not getting through the oxidation. I just fixed the same issue on mine by hitting the brass bit with some 800 sandpaper.

 

A couple of thoughts:

On the driver's side, it's a very different arrangement for the contacts, as seen below:




So you can see the part number, in case you want it for parts

Here's the other part of the PN

If you want this hatch strut, you can have it and use the pins on it to retrofit it to the passenger side (that's why I included shots of the part number). As all the power to the circuit comes from the driver's side (I believe, I dunno) it seems like those connections to the rods are good enough for what you're looking to do.

The other thing that I saw when I went out and looked at the part that you're asking about is that, on the strut on my car, there's a screw that looks to hold the cup in place on the strut rod. I wonder if it would be possible to really tighten the cup down to the rod while the hatch is closed, such that the cup is pretty well jammed up against the strut cylinder. From looking at the design, I wonder if that's not part of how the system is supposed to work, where the cylinder jams the connection down to the extension rod to make contact. That would make it so that the circuit is then only active while the hatch is closed (again, I believe, I don't actually know).

At any rate, if you want the strut that I have pictured, or the one I have from my passenger side, I'm happy to send them to you. As you can sort of see in the pictures, I'm going to try to go a very different way with my hatch struts and won't be using those parts. The passenger side one is sort of janky, but might be good for parts. If you're not aware, the ball cups can be screwed off if you want to fiddle with things more easily.

Cheers

 

The circuit closes when the hatch opens. The lights always have a 12V feed; the hatch connection (or one of the door switch connections) grounds the circuit.

There's what looks like a bit of heat-shrink tubing around the rod at the other gas tube end. I believe when closed this pushes between the brass clip and the rod, breaking the circuit.