I?d followed Eric Capron?s useful guide to replacing the boot lid springs. The building of the two spring packs wasn?t too bad compared with the task of fitting them to the hinges. I tried extending the springs with a bar which then gets in the way when trying to fit the end over the hinge post. Splitting the hinge in two wasn?t any better and my attempts were starting to damage the painting. As I'd not had much joy with the accepted methods, I thought I'd give it a whirl. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Essentially the building of the spring pack just arranges the leaves in order on the mounting bolt so the spring pack can be fitted onto the hinge bracket. The individual leaves are then pulled out from the spring pack with pliers, working out from the inner most leaf. The leaf being pulled clear pivots on the mounting bolt and is then extended and placed over the receiving pillar. The process is then repeated for the remaining leaves.
First leaf is pulled out
Single leaf can then be extended and fitted over post quite easily
Then it a case of repeating for the remaining leaves
The securing nut on the spring pack bolt only needs to be put on a couple of turns to allow the leaves to pivot and then full tightened once completed. Pulling out the individual leaves was quite difficult but obviously it gets sequentially easier.
I had to use a screw driver to lift each spring to be able to get some strong pliers sufficiently on to the leaf to pull it out. Once a leaf has been partially pulled out, it was occasionally necessary to tease it out further using a screwdriver between the leaf and the edge of the spring pack. The leaf can then be extended using some thick protective gloves and pliers.
I found it surprisingly easy and would recommend trying this approach over trying to extend the full 5 leaf spring pack. Hopefully others might find this useful.
Chris
