[Spridgets] Bugeye bonnet supports

[Peter Caldwell]

Well, they ARE bloody heavy.   OK, my intent was to measure how much 
force is required to hold the bonnet OPEN at it's full extension.

So, I opened the bonnet all the way so that the OE supports held it. 
Put a scale on the valve cover. Put a box on the scale so that it was 
an inch away from the fully opened bonnet. Lifted up on the bonnet to 
release the support dinguses, and let the bonnet down so that it 
touched the box. The bonnet is within an inch of being fully open 
when it exerted 90 lbs on the scale.

How meaningful that bit of info is, ask an engineer. I suppose I 
could make a similar measurement at the handle with the bonnet nearly 
closed, but the question asked was what is required to hold the bonnet open.

Peter
=====
At 12:37 PM 1/30/2009, David Booker wrote:

>--- On Fri, 1/30/09, Peter Caldwell <peter at nosimport.com> wrote: "I 
>placed a shipping scale on the valve cover with a spacer (box of 
>Austin Marina brake shoes) that would touch the bonnet..."
>Peter,
>I may not have completely pictured in my head what you're trying to 
>say here.  It seems like the measurement you describe would be the 
>weight to open the bonnet, or to hold it in the almost down 
>position.  When the bonnet is in the fully up position, wouldn't it 
>take much less pressure to actually hold it there?  To measure that, 
>looks like you'd need to use a prop rod between the scale and the 
>bonnet while it is balanced in the approximate up position you'd 
>want it to be in when open.  Then again, if not much of the bonnet 
>weight is actually above and behind the hinge when in the open 
>position, the difference may be insignificant and your method could 
>be acurate.  Or I may have completely misunderstood what you were 
>saying.  90 pounds just sounds heavy to me.
>
>Of course, my Spridget isn't a BE, so what do I know anyway...  :-)
>
>David Booker
>'71 Midget
>Long Island