| woodiewagon46 | -- 08-23-2026 @ 12:25 PM |
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On our way to Maine in our '46 Woodie I hit a pothole on the Long Island Expressway and a few seconds later I heard a BANG, like someone was under the car with a sledgehammer! When we exited the expressway we stopped at a farm stand and when I opened the hood it was very hard to lift. It was then that I noticed the drivers side, hood assist spring was missing. When the hood is closed the spring is under tension so when it failed it flew somewhere but did not do any damage under the hood, so I consider myself very lucky. I fabricated a spring spreader to install the new spring and was very surprised that I needed to stretch the spring almost eight inches to get it on, quite a bit of tension when the hood is shut!
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| TomO | -- 08-24-2026 @ 9:35 AM |
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That happened to me on my 53 Lincoln. It damaged the hood, but a paintless dent repair guy managed to get the dent out. When I worked at a gas station in high school it was common practice to put a little oil on the wear points of the springs among other items with an grease and oil change. I just keep forgetting it on my cars. Tom
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| woodiewagon46 | -- 08-25-2026 @ 7:11 AM |
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Good point Tom, over 55K on the odometer and never thought of lubricating my hood hinges, I do now. I lucked out, when my spring broke it must have gone straight down and the noise I heard must have been the spring hitting the frame. I can't find any damage whatsoever.
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| TomO | -- 08-25-2026 @ 10:22 AM |
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If it happens again, take the hinge off and just use washers between the coils to stretch the spring. You might want to check the other spring for wear and replace it if it shows any wear. Tom
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