Rob Edwards

Forgive the dumb question, but what's the failure mode on these? Mine is fine, as best I can tell, but if it were dead, is it just that the glove box falls open? Or does it refuse to let the door open? For ~$100 I'd be inclined just to help lower the lid gently.......

dprantl

Yes, the glove box just drops without any resistance. But I'm sick and I *need* everything to work in my new car. I just don't fancy paying 5 times the reasonable price for a part. And it's not the fault of the Big 3 of course.

Dan
'91 928GT S/C

Ed Scherer

It just drops open, undamped. Kind of like a screen door slamming on you if you don't have a good gas damper.

If you've got a heavily loaded glove box, the slam might even be a little destructive.

It's just so nice when it lowers in a nice, controlled fashion.

Rob Edwards

Gotcha- my E34 BMW has a damped glovebox, but the lower end is different than the little ball joint pictured here. God knows I've blown $100+ on little trivial bits for mine as well, but the glovebox hasn't been an issue (yet). Perhaps I'm not driving fast enough if I don't wear out the glovebox shock while having to reach for my insurance and registration........

AO

I go to Koblenz Germany at least once a year for work... maybe I can stop by their plant.

JPTL

If all else fails: http://www.customgassprings.com/Recharging.htm.
They say "at a fraction of the cost of new..." that must mean when cost of new is prohibitive or unavailable, because common lifts are only $20.
Wonder if this guy would be open to a discount for a 'group charge'.
i.e. if he were to get 10 orders from us to recharge these things, charging them at a single sitting would be worth discounting.
Just a thought...
EDIT: I see that this guy is in Canada. I wonder if there are US shipping laws preventing shipping of these things if they've been serviced/recharged.

AO

What happened to NAFTA?

borland

This is not a gas filled shock; it's a oil filled dampner.

The problem is, as was stated earlier, when the oil leaks out, resulting in a glove box that just flops open.

I was considering mounting the shock upside down (so the oil can't leak out), but I think there's not enough oil inside to have the same full stroke dampening effect. Maybe these can be easily modified to allow a full fill of oil.

AO

Looks like Stabilus offers a similar product. It's in German, soI can't read all the good stuff, but it looks like on page 8 of this catalog Part number 4172ZZ might fit the bill.

http://pdf.directindustry.com/pdf/st...206-28910.html

AO

How about this one from MCMasters Carr? $20.33

Search part number: 6521K51

http://www.mcmaster.com/

RyanPerrella

$77.15 is what I got, that is nearly the price of a rear Boge shock, damn!

AO

Huh?

This is what I get...

AO

Oh I see it's rated at 50lbs. I wonder if that's too much.

RyanPerrella

I wasn't talking about your damper.

That price is what i got from my parts source and that little tiny damper is nearly the cost of a Boge rear shock (Which is about $100 and much bigger)

Ed Scherer

Andrew, I was looking at that McMaster stuff yesterday, too. Seemed promising until I looked at the details. I don't think the one you highlighted will work. Probably not close enough on the compressed and extended lengths, and I'm pretty sure the ball size is smaller than 10 mm (probably 8 mm).

Might be able to get Easylift to custom-build a batch for a group buy, but I'm guessing it really wouldn't be cost effective. Probably not really all that many people interested anyway.