Club 80-90 Forums

to buy, like ...

Getting sick and tired of always having to lift that awkward yoke off and out ...and then trying to fiddle it back in again in one go (hardly ever succeed).

Rather than experimenting with a handfull of different hinges from the hardware shop, not getting it right and leaving a mess of bodged drillholes behind , I'd prefer it if someone could point me towards a plug&play (&fits) solution, if there is such a thing ...

never seen one

Standard fitment on 5 cylinder South African vans....but finding one off a breaker is another thing.

What a great idea Peasant! If you do sort it please post your results so I can do the same!

seen a a couple of german vans at a show with hinged lids and a gas strut to hold it open, looked well smart, and as you say very handy. some like mine are what looks like glassfibre or plastic tho, so not as simple as welding hinges on, although the kraut ones i saw both had steel lids, so some models or years must have had steel ones. looks a good mod to do tho, a tailgate gas strut from a scrapyard and a bit of bracket making aint too technical

If its any consolation ...be glad that you have the plastic lid.
Used to have the steel version on my 82 Diesel ...that was on heavy yoke and the sound dampening on it was very poor and kept falling out.
Very cumbersome thing altogether.

Just did a quick inspection on my yoke and found out a few things:

- actually I have that blooming metal lid myself (again !) ...never noticed before ...thankfully so far the insulation is still attached.

- I don't really need a hinge ...I can open the lid (as if it was hinged) and just rest it against the rear seats. On closing, a gentle backward push half way down brings the rear brackets home again perfectly.

- what causes all my problems is the rear sound deadening mat. This has been shredded by the army in order to install their radio equipment and the pieces, while sort of cut to allow for opening the lid, are just the wrong size and always interfere with proper opening and closing of the lid so you end up having to take it out.

So really, what I have to do is to remove my shredded mat (in 4 pieces) every time and then the lid can stay inside as described above.

I think I'll forget about hinges for the time being and sort my sound deadening mat instead ...i.e. get a new one that is still in one piece or try some home made solution with different material.

the plastic lids have got what looks like foam attached as sound deadening, but i suppose the metal ones need something a bit better at reducing the noise, something like that rubber matting they make out of shreds of recycled tyres, stuck on with contact glue might do it.