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GarageXTi Hood Strut Install

Written by Ben Broughton

Saturday, 15 March 2008

Page 5 of 5

IMPORTANT NOTE: At this point, it’s wise to re-use the prop rod and give your friend a break while you complete the first few steps of the install for the other side. A single strut WAS NOT designed to hold the hood up, so make sure you secure the hood before continuing on (even if it appears that the hood will stay up on it’s own).

Once it is time to attach the struts to the aluminum blocks, have your friend drop the prop rod and hold the hood up again. With the hood fully extended, the ball stud should be pretty close to where it needs to thread into the aluminum block. Once again, work with your friend to get the ball stud and the threads in the aluminum block aligned, and be sure not to take hand pressure off of the hood until the stud is completely bottomed out (this will prevent any chances of the aluminum threads pulling out of the block due to the pressures on it).

Once the ball stud is bottomed out and torqued, you can remove hand pressure from the hood.

Pull the hood down and make sure there are no items binding the free movement of the struts. As with all aluminum hoods, it should be dropped for latching (as opposed to pre-latching it and pressing down on the hood’s surface). You should be able to drop the hood per the manual and it should lock.

There is a chance that some adjustment will be necessary for the hood to reliably latch every time. The test vehicle did not need any type of adjustment, but the factory manual discusses the ability to adjust the hood from the hinges and the front locking mechanism, which may be necessary on your particular vehicle.

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Enjoy your proprodless Forester! Banane02