Gas Struts are now very common, and they are surprisingly easy to order and replace yourself! Whether the strut is on a toolbox, lift gate, storage or "Murphy" bed, hatch or attic ladder, the process to remove and replace a strut is very similar.
In this episode, Dirt Farmer Jay shows you have to change out the lift supports on the back gate of an SUV. Lift supports are also known as gas springs, gas struts, and lift struts. Some online retailers have ordering systems that allow you to quickly and accurately find the right set of supports for your application.
You'll only need a few tools to do the job, and we'll walk you through it and give you a couple of safety tips as well!
Even though we show grease being applied to the ball sockets as we installed them, we've since discovered that the vast majority of strut manufacturers utilize self-lubricating materials. Lube is additional. Whether you use grease or not, make sure that the mounts are clean before installing your new set of struts!
Remember, most lids, hoods, trunks, and hatches are quite heavy. They need to be fully supported as the old struts are removed and as the new ones are installed. For this job on the hatch door on our SUV, we used a 6' stepladder to do the job.
DFJ buys lift struts at LiftSupportsDepot.com. We have received no compensation of any kind for this video. When we find a good company and product, we like to pass it on!
Thanks to Brandon at Lift Supports Depot.com for insights on how gas struts are utilized and constructed. You can contact the company at www.liftsupportsdepot.com.
Sure, you could take your vehicle to the garage, but why? Now you can JUST DO IT YOURSELF!
Hey, Dirt Farmer Jay here from DirtFarmerJay.com. Has the time come to replace those gas struts on
perhaps the back of your car or your toolbox? It's not that difficult to do if you know a few
things. Stay tuned and I'll show you how. Hey, Dirt Farmer Jay here from DirtFarmerJay.com.
Today, we're going to show you how to replace the gas struts or the gas springs that are commonly
found in devices such as toolboxes, office chairs, and as you see right here on our car. Well,
these struts have been in service for well over a decade. They've done a lot of work,
but it's time to replace them. And how we know it is when it gets cold, the gate doesn't stay
open very well, or it doesn't lift as fast, and so it's just time to replace them. Now,
these work by compressing nitrogen gas using a series of valves in the cylinder, as well as the
piston that rides back and forth. And in case you're worried about it, nitrogen is the most
common gas in the atmosphere we breathe, accounting for 78 percent, so it's a great
use of a natural resource. Now, I was able to easily order these replacement struts from my
friends at liftsupportdepot.com, and they knew exactly with their online application tool for
what I was using for what model of car, and I was able to get this replacement strut. Now,
if you think that you can simply grab these and push them together, if that happens,
you've got a defective one, because these are incredibly strong. So if I try to push them
together, you can see there is no movement whatsoever, and in case you think I'm faking it,
hey, take a look at that. All right, well, let's get to work. The first thing you need to do
is work safely, and the way we do that is by putting a step ladder under this lift gate.
Now, you can get really deceived easily about how heavy this tailgate is, because if you're like me,
you've gotten used to those gas struts doing most of the work, and you think, oh, this is maybe
15, 20 pounds. If you pull those gas struts out and let this go, it'll slam so hard that it'll
probably break the glass, and if you're under it, let me assure you, you won't like the results.
So the first thing you got to do is make sure that once we are removing those gas struts,
that this tailgate will come down on there and not travel down any further. I'm going to use
this replacement strut as an example so you can clearly see the clips that are on the ends
of the piston and the base of the mount here. What we'll do on the ones that are on the car right now
is we'll be slipping a screwdriver right under that clip in that detent and lifting the clip
to allow that to move back, those holders to move back, so we can slip it over the ball stud
that this is going to mount on. So when we go to work on the car, the first thing we're going to
do is slip a narrow screwdriver that's narrow enough it'll fit in that detent. You're going
to slip it under the retainer clip, wiggle your way under there, lift, and move forward so it does
not return and snap in. That allows the holders back here to move back out of the way. So let's
go ahead and do that on the actual vehicle on both ends and remove the worn out strut. So the
first thing we need to make sure is that the weight of the tailgate is being supported by
the ladder. So I'm going to lower it down onto there, make sure that's sitting there. Then we're
going to go ahead and move back the retainer clip on the worn out strut. Here we go. This may take
a little bit of prying, gentle prying, be careful not to scratch. Sometimes the clip is going to
bounce back in there. Simply rework it again and move it back out of the way until you get it to
stay. And there you go. You can see that now both the ball studs are exposed. There's the first one,
the second one up there. When we're at this stage, why don't we take opportunity to put a little bit
of grease on those ball studs so that they'll operate and be in service for a long time.
I recommend some kind of high viscosity grease instead of a spray lubricant like WD-40 or a
silicone. This will stick and it'll serve longer. So let's go ahead and put a little bit of a dab
on both of those balls. And as you can see, it's nice and sticky. It stays right in place.
We'll clean up and let's go in and install the replacement strut. As you can see, I've gone ahead
and moved the retainer clips back out of the way while I have it out here instead of up against the
car. It makes it a lot easier. Let's go ahead and install. You can install either end, but I
generally like to start with the one that's on the car body itself instead of the gate.
So you can see the retainer clip is now holding it so it can't come off. We'll simply move the
head around, change the orientation until it's in line. And at this point, you're going to take
your other hand, raise the gate until it aligns, push on the strut like this, and then move the
retainer clip until it comes into place. Well, there we go. Now I want you to notice something,
and that is the lifting power of this new strut. Let's take a look over here and see how naturally
how much is raised. If you remember just a few moments ago, we easily were able to set that down
and just let it sit there. Watch what happens now. That is lifting so much power that we have
greatly improved the pressure upward just with one strut. Now what we're going to do in just a
moment is just step and repeat and do that on the other side. And it's the same exact process.
Everything's mirror set. And once we're done, we have a great replacement system of the last many
years. Well, our friends at LiftSupportsDepot.com provided this great little instruction sheet
that I actually use to walk through this. I want to give them credit where credit is due,
but wherever that you purchase this from, they're likely to provide the same sort of thing. As a
courtesy, we'll go ahead and provide the PDF of this nice sheet and their website address down in our
description. We really like the product. We think you'll like it too for whatever application you're
going to use it for. Hey, if you found this video to be helpful, won't you like it? And better yet,
why don't you subscribe to our channel for other great tips around the kitchen, out in the shop,
and in the yard. Until the next time, this is Dirt Farmer Jay from DirtFarmerJay.com.
