I'm wondering if anyone knows the length of the pneumatic struts used by Redline Tuning with their Pinto kit. I am wanting to do this to my car using struts from another car, or hatch struts from, say, a mercury tracer wagon.
Check with Pintoman. He has them on his 1980 Ralley so he might be able to help you out.
There is a full writeup in the inaugural issue of Pinto Times; I JUST reviewed it and it does >not< mention the length of the pistons.
Chris
Yeah, the Pinto Times article is what reminded me of my previous interest in this modification, and I also found no specifications on the struts, even on their website!
I printed up the installation guide from their site. I will try to measure from the mounting point used in the magazine, angle the hood the same as in the magazine, then measure the distance and see how long that is. I can guesstimate pretty well on cylinder and strut length.
As long as you set the struts in right so they don't bottom out it should be OK. I only have one and it works fine. No idea what it came from. I can measure it if that helps. My mounting points are different though.
After a few trips to the junk yard to find the parts I needed and a good set of struts, I got myself all setup! :D
My setup uses the same type of strut that the kit in the Pinto Times magazine does, with a pivot ball on each end of the strut, one large, one smaller.
I am using the struts from an 94 Mercury Cougar, the lower pivot studs off a 94 Ford Taurus, and the upper hood pivot brackets off a 92 Pontiac Grand Prix, talk about confusing! lol Now that the struts are on and working, all I need to take note of is what vehicle the struts came off of, the Cougar. That way I can replace them in the future with new ones.
I will post some photos in my project log when I get the time to.
I bought another set at Carlisle yesterday.I will measure them tomorrow and post.
Im glad someone brought this up! Ive been wanting a set for my car forever but didnt want to hassle with the "peicing together" a setup. Im getting me an elite set asap for the 71 sedan. Just cant help myself to get the SHINY!
The piston's are 20 and a eighth inches from center hole to center hole.I hope this helps.
Elite setup here as well SHINY IS GOOD!!!