Bonnet wont stay up on its own

[david.coan]

My 1968 series 1.5 ots bonnet wont stay up, is there adjustment? The car is just back from a classic car specialist after a few months away being converted to RHD and conversion to triple SU. Before the car went away the bonnet would stay up once opened on its own.

[Durango2k]

I read somewhere you can pre-adjust the spring arm mechanism, it has long holes to be slid up and down.

Yours truely has still to understand how it works, but that seems a way to go, maybe together with new springs.

Furthermore it is often said that bondo filled bonnets do not stay open, I guess it depends how much bondo was used where on it :-), and it is a must to fit all the chrome parts on the nose, if you look at the axle the whole giant swings around you see why.

Hopefully someone chimes in with an explanation for the spring pre-tension.

Carsten

[abowie]

Before the car went away the bonnet would stay up once opened on its own.

I'd be asking then to fix it.

[Jaglex]

Carsten is right, you can adjust the "upforce" by loosening the srcews that fix the hinge to the (opened) bonnet and slide the hinge (relative to the bonnet) up or down. I don't recall which way increases the upforce, but you'll know, when you look at it - or after you tried it.
It's an easy and pretty quick one-man-job - unless the screws are rotten.
Enjoy sticking your head under the bonnet without carrying it with your head.

[david.coan]

Thanks for the advice, it was now obvious once i looked that the spring balance brackets had not been replaced and tightened in their previous position when the garage put the bonnet back on. A quick loosen on the 4 bolts on one side, slide the bracket so that the 2 bolts for the bonnet in the bracket slots were closer to the slots top , retighten, same on the other-side and the bonnet then stayed up in its max opening on its own. But then i discovered the bonnet would not close! , so i had to slacken off and now i have a very weak self balance, but at least it closes. So it must be tiny adjustment needed to find the sweet spot. I think i will buy an adjustable bonnet prop too.