[plutokr4t]

Hey,

i want to show you my little diy about my torsion bar alternative.
One of my torsionbars break, and i struggeled replacing it because the risk of injury when inserting.

So i googled if there is an alternative, but i didn't found a good one. So i pondered for a while and decided to replace both torsionbars with gas springs.

I made the modification on my Honda Accord CL7 from 2007, but its identically constructed like your TSX.

What do you need:
1. 2 gas springs with min 250N each, with 8mm eylet on both sides
2. Threaded rod or bolts of the same size + nuts
3. two metal angles
4. 6-8 metal screws
5. Little bolt that fits in the holes from the angle with a nut

These are the gas springs I used:
Length from eyelet to eyelet 300mm, lifting rod 100mm, eylet 8.2mm each

How to proceed now?
At first you had to remove the torsion bars. I used a crow bar - this is the most safely way. Be carful, because it slams realy loud then you remove the torsion bar. But with the crow bar you should be far away enough with your hands, so you wouldn't ge hurt.

Whe you must remove the side panels in your trunk. You can remove the clips easily with an old fork. Then you need violence to remove the side panles, but dont worry the side panles don't break or rip easily. You dont have to remove the panels of the trunk hinge, in my photos i only remove them to make better fotos.

Now screw a long 8mm bolt or 8mm threaded rod in the opening hole for the torsion bar in the trunk hinge. Pay attention thet the bolt is not to long, so it does not bump anywhere. Here you can see the bolt in the front:

Then take a metal angle, put a little bolt in one of the holes and srew it tight with a nut. This bolt is to determine approximate distance between trunk hinge hole and the best position of the metal angle in the trunk. So insert the gas spring on the bolt you mount in the trunk hinge and on the other side in the bolt of the metal angle. Place the metal angle on the backside of the trunk and mark it with a pen, if necessary usedouble-sided adhesive tape to fix it.

Now shut the trunk and look from the inside if the gas springs fit beween the trunk hinge hole and the metal angle. If it fit drill an 8mm hole in the metal angle and screw a 8mm bolt or threaded rod in the hole. Like this:

Now mount the angle in the trunk with the metal screws. Predrill the holes for the screws.
On the bottom right i do not dare to drill a hole in the trunk. Since I was unsure if I then drill into the wheel well. But 3 screws each angle were sufficient.

Now mount the gas spring.

Pay attention that you have enough space between metal angle and the gas spring.

Here you can see the gas spring with closed trunk.

Im suprised myself that it fit without an adjustment of the side panels.

Some last notes:

The both 250N gas springs hold the trunk in any position. But u need to open it by yourself. In my opinion you can also use 350N gas springs, so maybe the trunk opens by itself.
Dont use gas springs with less than 250N each, because this wont be enough to hold the trunk lid, when its fully opened.

Hope you enjoyed reading.

Conversion is at your own risk, i assume no liability for any damage caused.

 

[reyesjnj]

Nice and thanks for the write up.

 

[sonyfever]

Nice +1