Ugh! Broken trunk lid torque rod

One of the trunk lid counterbalance torque rods on my ’67 Olds 98 convertible busted. Now, the trunk lid has to be held up with a broom stick. The car may be a bit off topic, but the problem probably has occurred on many early 60’s GM cars as well as the late 60’s and 70’s ones. The design looks to be same though out those years.

Here’s a picture of the broken end of the torque rod.


Here’s the whole thing. It’s about 50 inches long with the broken end sort of in place.


This is the hinge area where it mounts.


The back end of my O/T convertible! (Note the broom stick support!)


My big book of Oldsmobile parts numbers indicates these rods were specific to this convertible. In fact, GM gave different part numbers to almost every different model of each year. I guess the length and weight of the trunk lid was taken into account when the torque rods were designed. My Hollander’s Interchange doesn’t cover these, just the trunk lid itself. It seems like there would be some interchangeability between the C body cars, at least. Does anyone know how interchangeable the torque rods are? Does anyone have a big GM C body parts car with these torque rods they’re willing to sell???

 

2 door olds of the same year trunk lid should be the same and the rods. See on your picture there are 3 notches to adjust the tension. As long as you get the length right you might be able to use the adjusting notches to increase the tension of the rod for holding it up. Might be a 4 door will have the same length rods and maybe Buick is the same. GM was good at using the same small parts on Chev and Pontiac in one series --then Olds, Buick, Cad in the other series. Some parts like that work for all GM car lines. overspray

 

V-grind and arc weld. You may be surprised how well it works and you have NOTHING to lose. You might think that welding on spring steel wont work well, but try it!

 

gimme diameter, total length, dimensions etc, and i'll check this parts car i have. 65 impala hardtop, might be similar enough to work.

 

Bruce - Welding the rod was my first thought, but was told it most probably will break under load. Replacement seems like the best in the long term. Besides, I'd have to get someone to do the welding since my welding is really, REALLY bad!

ChromedRAT - I'll send you a PM with those dimensions. Thanks!

 

It's a spring. You can't weld it without re-hardening and tempering it.
The 98 shared the pan and some body parts with Cadillac and Roadmonster Buick so maybe one out of one of them will work on it. If not. there's always hood gas struts...

Whan I was selling Oldsmobiles in '67 we sold a yellow convert just like that to the owner of Taco Bell! (silly trivia, sorry)

 

Dr J - I remember you saying something awhile back about selling Oldsmobiles! Along with all of the owner's manuals, service manuals and sales brouchers for my Olds, I also have the '67 Oldsmobile Product Selling Information binder and the big Colors and Fabric book!

 

Ignore the nay-sayers Chris. You may be surprised at how well it works to arc weld it. I'm aware of spring steel characteristics and tempering, blah, blah blah. That stuff is correct, of course, but I have good experiences backing up my suggestion.

 

[ QUOTE ]
Ignore the nay-sayers Chris. You may be surprised at how well it works to arc weld it. I'm aware of spring steel characteristics and tempering, blah, blah blah. That stuff is correct, of course, but I have good experiences backing up my suggestion.

[/ QUOTE ]

Manyol,
you mean to tig weld it or any buzz box or whatever?

And what's it gonna hurt except your head if it's under there when it breaks...of course that can obviously happen anyway...

 

Same thing broke in my wifes '62 Fairlane.. Thought I'd weld it for a quick fix and it lasted about two days. BANG!!!The weld stayed together though. The broom stick has become an accessory for the trunk now.I'll get around to it one day.