Adam Varney's hood strut relocators

[Bob Gervais]

For those that don't know, when installing a front strut tower brace on 89-95 models Taurus/SHO/Sable, you need to remove the hood struts. This leaves you with a few options on how to secure the hood in the opened position. The best I've found to date is Adam Varney's strut relocator kit. I've installed them on my 91, and I love them. They re-use the stock struts, so if yours are good you won't need to buy any. Even if yours are bad, you can just buy the stock struts and know they will work. Installation was easy too. Very good product Adam! thumb

 

[Huntervf]

I just installed these on my 93; very simple installation thumb The only bit of advice I'd offer is to have a 2nd person with you to help get/keep the hood centered and in the correct position. I also had to angle the smaller "ball" sections in a little bit to give the edges of the hood enough clearance to shut cleanly. The main brackets mount to the hood hinges and having a 2nd person to help keep the hood in the right spot would've made things easier. I did this myself at night and it took me awhile to get the hood positioned right and fitted down correctly. But yes, it's very nice to have a STB and a hood that opens by itself. In fact, with the position of the hood struts and the increased angle that the hood sits in I found that one strut can actually hold the hood up.

Two thumb thumb

 

[yamahaSHO]

Huntervf:
I also had to angle the smaller "ball" sections in a little bit to give the edges of the hood enough clearance to shut cleanly.

Do you mean you had to angle the ball inward to prevent the hood from scraping? I ground of the edge of mine and angle it inward because they were rubbing. Other than that, thumb I love the kit thumb .

I have already spoken to Adam about thise. My suggestion was to offset the ball so it would sit towards the engine bar.

 

[munkee]

Where do you go to purchase a set?

 

[Dr. Tweak]

From Adam Varney, i think it's [email protected]

 

[Huntervf]

Whoa, missed that response, sorry Jason!

I noticed on mine that when I had the ball sections bolted down straight that there wasn't enough clearance between them and the edge of the hood; as such the hood buldged a bit where the ball sections were mounted. I found that all I needed to do was loosen them and give them just a slight angle inward, maybe 5 degrees at the most. That gave me all the clearance I needed, and the struts still work 100%. I gave Adam a heads up on this as well thumb

 

[National #19]

These are just awesome! The price is great on them and prop the hood up much higher!
Thanks Adam!