Trunk Hydraulics

Stanley

Stanley

3rd Gear Poster
Joined
Oct 12, 2023
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184
Location
Canada
Vehicle Details
1997 Thunderbird 4.6L V8
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The trunk on my 97 Bird no longer stays open unless it's up all the way. Are the hydraulics on the trunk for that model particularly hard to come by and/or replace?
 
There are no hydraulics, the trunk uses old school torsion bar springs to keep it open. They are actually adjustable with a home made tool and muscle to pull the bars to a different slot to add tension
 
That home made tool. Use extreme caution! I advise against it (though I admit it worked for me with a lot of luck).

Also, if I remember correctly, the manual specifies this tool for moving from slot 1 to slot 2 only. There are three slots total; for the move from 2 to 3, I think the manual specifies some other procedure - but I could be dreaming this.

In my case, one bar was in 1, the other in 2. I moved the one bar into 2, as well, and the problem was solved.

20250415_172151.jpg
 
I suspect the reason for the weak factory setting of the torsion bars is to protect the LED's in our lighting from being damaged when you have to firmly shut the trunk lid. I had side fail on me after a stiff wind slammed the trunk lid down.
 
Here you go.

Derphound01

Thread 'Trunk Lift Support Struts'

This one was easy. I followed this guide and it worked perfectly: Trunk Lid lift strut information. The instructions are posted below for those who'd prefer to not visit a different forum.

My car has a spoiler, so I opted to use two supports. I tested it with one and it was not enough to lift the trunk. One support also provided very little resistance when closing the lid.

Linked here are the supports I used. They are a direct replacement for the OE Mustang supports. A pair of these is the same cost as just one of the OE supports.

Trunk Struts.jpeg

Shown here is the picklist of...
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