928Myles

Hi,
have just installed the new hood struts - one old was at 80% the other at 10%. The RHS of the hood now sits about 4mm high when closed and the LHS still sits about 3mm low.

I have tried to adjust the RHS down but even with useing a clamp to get the hood as low on the hinge as possible there is no change. Have tried to adjust the bottom of the hinge (3 bolts) in case that was the problem - also no luck.

The LHS still has the same strange initial downward movement when first opening.

Any ideas?

Myles

Podguy

Bad hinges - They have been sprung. The hinge pivot points wear. I have chased this problem before. It can drive you nuts. Take off one hinge and open and close it pushing sideways. If there is play in the hinge then you cannot get a complete adjustment. As you push down on the corner of the hood it uses the bottom position of the hood pin. When you let go the hinge with the hood shock will go to the maximum position on the hinge.

Hilton

If you disconnect the gas shocks, how does it lie when fully closed?

Re-aligning the bonnet is one of the most painstaking processes I've come across on a 928.

It took me a lot of attempts after taking the hinges/spacers/hood/latch apart on my 87.

Leave the bottom 3 bolts on the hinges alone - there's little movement there, and you can get the full range on the top two bolts that actually attach to the hood. Then disconnect the gas struts as they'll screw with getting the hood in the right place by trying to push it forwards whenever you have the bolts slightly loose for adjusting.

After a lot of attempts to get it right, the advice I have is:

1. Start by getting the fore/aft alignment correct. Even a tiny difference fore/aft makes a huge difference to how the hinges sit. Make sure that the aft end of the hood sits in a continuous arc from the curve at the rear of the fenders - and that the front end of it sits evenly against the top of the PU.

2. Then work hard to get the left/right gaps even, and straight. If you can't quite get them even, move a shim from one side to the other, or remove a shim. Once the gaps are even, go back and check point 1 above.

3. Then once 1 and 2 are done, work on aligning the hood up/down on the top part of the hinge until the bonnet sits flush when fully latched closed. The easiest way I found was to loosen the bolts 1/2 turn, and physically push the top strut of the hinge up and down by pinching/prising with my fingers against the inner face of the bonnet.

If after that you've screwed up the fore/aft alignment, or skewed it left/right, you've got to go back and start again - having a helper who can lift/lower/close the hood is required while you adjust at the bolts. I also found it helpful to undo the two M6 nuts a whole turn on the latch so it could be slid fore/aft, but that may be because I had the latch and receiver off the car too for re-plating.

I'd love to know how they did the hood alignment at the factory.

928Myles

Hi,
I have managed to get the side gaps even front & back and side to side (that is 5mm gap in all 4 corners) and the LHS sitting even with the fender. Getting late here now - will have another go at the RHS tomorrw.

I am beginning to think that my RHS hinge may be bad.

Thanks for the ideas.
Myles

Bill Ball

All the adjustment is in the top bolts. Once the gaps are right, I make the top hinge bolts just tight enough that they will hold a position but I can move the hood in the hinge to get it lined up, along the lines of Hilton's point #3. Pull it into alignment, then open and tighten the bolts. Maybe that's obvious and you already tried it. If it still won't hold alignment and moves oddly, then the hinge is likely worn out, as Dan already mentioned.

Five-8

Dan

Those extra freshly plated hinges include freshly plated hardware to mount them with?If so, what would you be willing to sell a set for?

Cheers,

Adrian

borland

Sounds like the hinge is still binding. I'd suggest you grease the hinges again. It could be that you missed one joint or applied the grease to the wrong side of the pivot.

The lithium white grease in from an aerosol can will penetrate the pivot before solidifying to a grease paste. You can clean the dirt from the hinge using WD-40, followed by a lub with lithium white grease.

I don't see how the hinge could wear out. The hood is light weight aluminum. How many times does it get used.... not many.

928Myles

Thanks for all the advice.

The lubrication certainly helped the binding issue.

The key to the alignment (for me at least) was the realisation that the rear bolt affected height much more readily than the front.
I had been trying to get the hood lower by getting both bolts as high as possible. Close inspection showed me the error of my ways.

I left the front bolt reasonably tight once I got the front / back alignment about right and undid the rear a little more so that the hinge would pivot up or down on the front bolt and adjust the height. Keeping the front bolt reasonably tight helped stop the hood moving fore / aft. Having the rear bolt reasonably loose meant that I was able to easily adjust the hinge height by hand .

I how have both sides of the hood adjusted to within 1mm of each other and have all four corner gaps to the fenders to within 0.5mm.

Once again, thanks.
Myles