Hey what's going on guys, today we are going to be replacing the gas springs on the rear hatch of our
Escape. As you can see, it's not quite opening as far as it used to without a little bit of help...
When it's up, it stays up, but it doesn't always lift up by itself...So we have some gas springs
that we got off Amazon right down here... we're going to be installing them and it's very quick
and easy. You just need to be careful not to let the hatch fall on your head... that's really
the biggest part! so let's get started... the materials for this are going to be pretty basic-
just the two replacement gas springs (which I'll link in the description below), as well as a small
flathead screwdriver, and again, a friend if you think that you'll need some help holding
the liftgate up while you're replacing these. You can do it single-handed. I'm going to show you.
Alright, so the brand of gas springs that we're using here is Tough Support... I have the part
number in the link in the description below and really all you need to do is take off this
little metal clip- you don't even take it off - you just kind of lift it up. When you pull
that clip back these little teeth that you see that go around the ball will expand and you can
slide it over top the ball and then release it and it'll capture it on top of the ball again.
You can even see a little bit of grease in there which is good but really, it's as simple as just
getting the flathead screwdriver in there you'll see it lift it up a little bit but now you can
see that those teeth are no longer visible and you can slide it right over top of the ball.
For starters on removing it, you want to put your hand supporting the liftgate.
We're going to stick our screwdriver in that flat there pull out this clamp...
...and it should lift right away...
Now with the liftgate resting on my shoulder,
I'm going to take the screwdriver here... and pull that ring out.... and slide it off.
We will wipe off any dirt and grime that's on this ball as well...
Now you can let it shut if you'd like to- just
know that the hatch is going to be heavier when you open it next time.
Alright, so now we're going to reconnect our new one to in place of the old one... We've
cleaned off the metal ball that it's going to attach to, and we actually don't need to
lift the clip up this time because it'll just snap around that existing ball which is pretty
cool! It's very convenient... so I can just put it on there,,, and it's attached! Let's
do the top now.... still supporting the liftgate with one hand, i'm going to take this.... I did
have to turn this a little bit so that the socket would face the ball... and you just press it in!
Make sure that that ring is seated nicely and tight and holds itself together...
We now have both gas springs replaced!
In terms of orientation you have the main wide body of the cylinder
attached to the body of the car and you have the skinny shaft and
attached to the liftgate. Let's test it if we have it all the way down here...
..And that is higher than it's lifted in probably a year or two!...
and we're not going to smack our heads on it anymore! That's all there is to that.
Again, the links to these gas springs are down in the video description-
it's an amazon link so check it out if you're interested in getting this set.
If you liked this or thought it was interesting please give it a thumbs up if you know anyone
who's going to do this replacement, please share this video, and as always, subscribe
to the channel for more content later! Talk to you next time- thanks for watching How To Escape!