SuperiorLakeEffect
Bronze Member
As per usual, I have no problem taking things apart- putting them back together again is the issue. :melodramatic:
Was chasing a coolant leak on my 14 hour old L3901 today (another rant altogether), so for better access- I removed the hood. Pretty straight forward, pop the pin out of the top of the strut, undo the bolt in the back, disconnect the headlight, and then jiggle things around and it pops right off.
Putting it back on proved a different beast altogether. After futzing with it for a bit, I decided there's no way to get the hood on the hinge with the strut still in place, attached at the bottom. Unfortunately, the bottom is buried between the fuel tank and the DPF. Getting a good angle on the pin seemed difficult, but I figured I had a reasonable shot at the two bolts holding the bracket on. Sure enough, there was some tacky grease on them like somebody had tried this before.
With the hood off, getting that bracket out was no problem. With the hood back on....
...well, a magnetic flashlight attached to the underside of the hood, a mirror, much cursing, and perhaps offering my first and possibly second born to some second rate deity later (None yet and hopefully I'm old enough this won't be an issue), I finally got the bracket back in place and bolted in.
Really, the next time this comes up I might say screw it to putting the strut back in. Turns out the grill guard makes an excellent hood prop if you put fold it back in, and those second rate deities are probably catching on to the fact there probably won't be any progeny forthcoming.
So anybody got a surefire method of reinstalling the hood or dealing with the strut that isn't such a pain in the ***?
Was chasing a coolant leak on my 14 hour old L3901 today (another rant altogether), so for better access- I removed the hood. Pretty straight forward, pop the pin out of the top of the strut, undo the bolt in the back, disconnect the headlight, and then jiggle things around and it pops right off.
Putting it back on proved a different beast altogether. After futzing with it for a bit, I decided there's no way to get the hood on the hinge with the strut still in place, attached at the bottom. Unfortunately, the bottom is buried between the fuel tank and the DPF. Getting a good angle on the pin seemed difficult, but I figured I had a reasonable shot at the two bolts holding the bracket on. Sure enough, there was some tacky grease on them like somebody had tried this before.
With the hood off, getting that bracket out was no problem. With the hood back on....
...well, a magnetic flashlight attached to the underside of the hood, a mirror, much cursing, and perhaps offering my first and possibly second born to some second rate deity later (None yet and hopefully I'm old enough this won't be an issue), I finally got the bracket back in place and bolted in.
Really, the next time this comes up I might say screw it to putting the strut back in. Turns out the grill guard makes an excellent hood prop if you put fold it back in, and those second rate deities are probably catching on to the fact there probably won't be any progeny forthcoming.
So anybody got a surefire method of reinstalling the hood or dealing with the strut that isn't such a pain in the ***?
