'95 hood strut removal

[eddie926]

Need some help. I'm replacing the hood struts on my '95. I got the end that's attached to the hood disconnected with no problem. However, I can't see for the life of me how to disconnect the end that's attached to the chassis.

Does the bolt or pin that the strut is mounted on unscrew, or is there some kind of retainer clip that I just can't see? The head on the bolt/pin is perfectly round and flat, so it's obviously not meant to take a wrench or screwdriver.

[uibalnme]

They don't come off from the strut. The bracket pins are pressed on. You need to get struts with oem style brackets already attached. I got my replacements from ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/91-92...QQcmdZViewItem

See how the brackets are already attached? It's just much easier, and less of a hassle than modding the original brackets to accept the new struts. It's still possible to mod the original brackets. You'll have to cut the pins off, and drill out the brackets for new pins. It's tough, but possible. I didn't want to go through that much work. When I got my replacements, it only took me 10min. to change out both struts.

[eddie926]

Hmmm. I got the replacements at Auto Zone. I didn't realize there were ones that came with the brackets attached already.

[eddie926]

All righty then. Decided since I already had the struts on hand from Auto Zone that I didn't want to mess with returning them and ordering different struts from eBay, etc.

So...

Disconnected the struts from the hood. Disconnected the brackets and removed the bracket/strut assembly. Ground the back off the pin with a Dremel, then drilled it until I could pop the pin out of the bracket. Had to enlarge the hole slightly because the pin for the new strut was a tad bigger than the factory pin. Put everything back together, and voila, no more dropping hood. Now it just about flys open when you lift it.


This was on the LE. Now I have to do the XLE. The XLE hood doesn't drop, but seeing the new struts in action on the LE really highlights how weak the XLE struts are.

Thanks for the info uibalnme. I'd probably still be pondering what to do if you hadn't replied. Instead, I've got everything all stitched up now.

You gotta love this board.

[masteryota1]

Originally Posted by uibalnme

They don't come off from the strut. The bracket pins are pressed on. You need to get struts with oem style brackets already attached. I got my replacements from ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/91-92-93-94-95-96-Toyota-Camry-Pair-Hood-Support-Arms_W0QQitemZ140113140825QQihZ004QQcategoryZ6763Q QrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

See how the brackets are already attached? It's just much easier, and less of a hassle than modding the original brackets to accept the new struts. It's still possible to mod the original brackets. You'll have to cut the pins off, and drill out the brackets for new pins. It's tough, but possible. I didn't want to go through that much work. When I got my replacements, it only took me 10min. to change out both struts.

Ok well i ordered those same arms about 2 months ago for a 95 xle i was able to replace the one on the passenger side, but the one on the driver side was attached to some other stuff, and i couldnt get off, what was that? how do i get it off?

[eddie926]

Originally Posted by masteryota1

Ok well i ordered those same arms about 2 months ago for a 95 xle i was able to replace the one on the passenger side, but the one on the driver side was attached to some other stuff, and i couldnt get off, what was that? how do i get it off?

I haven't actually looked at my XLE yet, but on the LE on teh driver's side the bracket has an extra arm on it that fits into a clip on the back side of some wiring harness connector. It was dark out and I was working by spotlight so I didn't track it down to see what it was. I just carefully worked the bracket out of the clip and from there the rest went the same as the passenger side.