Wondering if Oreilleys gave me the wrong hatch struts. They said they had struts for a car with a spoiler, no rear defrost and no wiper--exactly what my car is.

I noticed on the new struts that they had little L-shaped tabs welded on each end, with a small hole as if to be a place to route a wire or something, which the struts they replaced did not have (struts they replaced were plain).

I also noticed the hatch takes a good bit of effort to pull down to close now. Admittedly the struts were bad for quite a few years so I can't remember how strong they should be, and the struts they replaced were on the car when I bought it (working then, but I don't know how far into their life they were then). Thus I don't know how strong new struts should feel, but these ones are damn strong--it kinda takes two hands to get it down to halfway before I can get my elbow above the decklid to finish pushing down with one hand.

1) Did O'Reilly give me the wrong struts? I don't have PNs, but the welded-on tabs seemed odd and coupled with the strength of the hatch I'm wondering if they are at a higher psi to support more weight for a defroster/wiper.

2) If they did give me the wrong struts that are too strong, can anything bad happen to the hatch (as an example the compressed struts pushing too hard against the decklid/glass mounting area when the hatch is closed)?

 

I have the theory that there are different ones because the wide flat wing spoiler (Firebird/Berlinetta) weighs a good amount more than say a standard Camaro one. I've also noticed from the junkyard that some are much stronger than others and I'm not talking about the ones about to fail.

 

There were two different hatch struts. They refer to them as with and without spoiler, but they should rethink that. There were multiple weights of spoilers. I need the heavier ones for my car because of the rear window louvers. With the louvers on, I pop the hatch and need to grab it or it will relatch. If I take the louvers off, the hatch will pop and lift on its own.

 

But nothing to worry aboutas far as undue stress on the hatch when closed if they are indeed the wrong ones, correct?

 

I used Mighty Lift Part Number: 95025 (oreily, AZ, or ACDelco 12333224) for my 'bird when it had the 2ton oem aerospoiler on it. It's the strut for w/spoiler, w/wiper. It's the strongest one, should be able to lift you louvers.

With the glass 4thgen wing, it ejects the hatch.

*edit... the 'L' tab is for the defrost wiring. an oz of copper wiring on the glass is irrelevant to the lift power needed. Defrost isn't even relevant if you ask for them at the dealer.

The options should be: w/o spoiler(12333222), w/spoiler or, wiper(12333223), w/spoiler w/wiper (12333224).