Bongo Fury

Here's a few tips on replacing the main struts
If your roof struggles to go up and drops like a stone, it may be worth doing.
If the above is accompanied by some residue or gunk on the chrome part of the original struts, then it probably needs to be done.


Testing the old struts
I weigh about 12 stone and I could fairly easily compress the old strut all the way. When I say easily, I'm talking about putting all my weight on it.
With a new strut, I got to about 3/4 compressed and my feet became decidedly light.

First step is to prop the roof up



Note V in top



Next, make a jig. The struts with the roof fully up are still compressed by a couple of cms and you need to support the bottom. Undo the bottom first



The jig should be such that it can slide along the roof. It requires a fair bit of strength to ease it along to the back of the van slowly once the strut bolt is lose.

Then do the top part. This, unlike the bottom, has a 12mm nut on it and you need this arrangement



You then have the strut off.
Putting the new one on is a reverse of the above but requires a fair bit of strength. The top bolt is easy but the bottom one has to be held firmly in place and aligned well with the threaded hole. This is, by far, the hardest bit. I did it on my own but two people may well be needed, one to hold the jig, the other to tighten the nut.
The other side requires a different, longer jig although I managed to do it by holding a shorter one in place rather than jamming it in place using some other part of the roof.

For the later Bongo, the roof strut dimensions needed are:-
988 mm fitting centre to fitting centre and piston rod length excluding fitting of 375 mm

Pleasingly, once done, the roof went straight up without the usual final push needed from inside the top before the beeping would stop.

Really useful post, thanks for putting this up. Maybe this could be made into a helpsheet on the main site?

Mine currently works ok other than juddering as it goes, planning to clean the runners & re-grease them when it's a little warmer.

I gather PTFE is the best stuff to lubricate it with, as with most things where you have nylon / plastic runners and metal runs.
I only had a small tin so could only 3/4 do this before I ran out.
I used normal oil on the actual hinges however.

Thanks Tony, I thought I had read somewhere that spray on ptfe is the best. As usual before I do anything I was going to scour this forum as virtually everything seems to have been asked already.

Harry Monster wrote:Really useful post, thanks for putting this up. Maybe this could be made into a helpsheet on the main site?

Mine currently works ok other than juddering as it goes, planning to clean the runners & re-grease them when it's a little warmer.

2nd that. What an excellent post. I wonder if a strap could somehow be used to keep the strut compressed while refitting it

mikeonb4c wrote:

Harry Monster wrote: I wonder if a strap could somehow be used to keep the strut compressed while refitting it

You may be able to use a strap - a ratchet one would do but you'd need to take care on any lateral load put on the strut.

Thanks all for the complements on the post.

I used white lithium grease on mine after wiping the old stuff off, worked a treat.
You can get the struts re gassed .

Thanks Tony. Can't wait to give it a go!

Mine need doing as the roof is super slow going up.

Tony x wrote:

mikeonb4c wrote:

Harry Monster wrote: I wonder if a strap could somehow be used to keep the strut compressed while refitting it

You may be able to use a strap - a ratchet one would do but you'd need to take care on any lateral load put on the strut.

Thanks all for the complements on the post.

Done it! Not the world's stong man here so opted for using a ratchet strap. Being wary of Tony's warning, I had a careful play at compressing the new strut indoors. It gave me a feel for the sort of tension I could expect. The strap flowed around the end of the strut fine so didn't put a bending force on the strut. I found that relaxing the tension was hard to control so best compress the new strut up to the right point and avoid over compressing it. When compressing the strut to install its bottom joint, I tightened the strap to within one click then pressed the joint in as I pulled the ratchet and the joint just popped in. Sweet!
Pictures are of removal, but installation of new was reversal and followed Tony's steps.


The ball joints on the new struts from SGS could be taken apart. This made screwing the ball joints into the bongo very easy and avoided any difficulty with spanner fouling the compressing strap at the lower end. Just remember to insert the retaining clip on the upper knuckle before compressing up the strut - its a lot easier!

Yayyyyy - I thought a strap might help get the job done.

Would be worth tweaking a factsheet to add that excellent tip in(with the usual health and safety disclaimer!)

Which struts did you use? I've an old style Bongo (96)

Dodgey wrote:Which struts did you use? I've an old style Bongo (96)

SGS part no.: GSC1639
Part no. on original: S10K 56 940B
Old (black ends) and new side by side

Difference is amazing. AFT speeds up now as it reaches top of travel, presumably as the angle of the struts becomes more effective. This is in cold weather when the tent is tighter and struts less powerful.

Having looked at the strap method and compared it to what I did using a jig, I think the strap method is the one to use.

Did mine yesterday. Let me reitterate a few points:

1- Don't try and compress the struts with a non-ratchet strap in a stand alone setup - i.e. not mounted to the vehicle at all. By the time you get it compressed enough, the straps will have covered the ball sockets. This is after you have taken the skin off the palm of your hand!

2- Use a ratchet strap and again, don't do it off the vehicle - you'll find the ratchet almost certainly gets in the way by the time you offer it up!

I propped the roof up with the pipe from a hoover. Jammed it in vertically. One side at a time.

Mount the top of the strut in the roof. Insert the top retaining pin. Do this now while you can move the strut about (I didn't and spent 15 mins with a pair of needle nose pliers and a mirror on a stick getting one of them in).

Put your ratchet strap around the strut. The bottom ball should be on the edge of the strap so it doesn't get covered as you tighten the ratchet.

Now just ratchet away and pop the bottom on - it's dead easy if you do it this way. If you try it off teh vehicle, you'll be swearing!