Hi all,
Came across this thread because I was having the same issue with the original post. The strut of the Carvey is shot, and was pushing one side with greater force that it broke the hinge. I was able to get a replacement hinge with info from this thread Broken hinges and gas strut
I was looking for a replacement strut, the Inventables support site has a link to a 3rd party supplier that has the strut for $35, plus shipping and tax. The downer is that the lead time for it is about 3-4 weeks, since it’s a custom part.
I want to share few “off the shelf” (Amazon) parts that let me replace the broken strut and have an extra one to be installed on the other side. All of this for about the same price of one custom strut, but takes 2 days (with prime shipping).
These are the parts:
- 1 pair of 16in struts (B08JLXL3XR) There are other 16in struts product that came with ball studs, but the tread part seems to be a little longer than the original ball studs.
- 4 Ball Studs (B07Z8LB65B)
- 2 Gas Spring End Fitting (B07CMZQL1D)
Please search Amazon for those product numbers above, I am not able to post links at the moment.
These are the steps to replace/install the new struts:
- Take off the plastic end fittings from the new struts
- Take both end fitting from the original struts (kinda tough, I needed to use 2 pliers to grab the arm and the end fitting and twist them opposite direction)
- Install the original end fitting on the skinny side of the new struts
- Install the 2 new Gas Spring End Fitting to the gas side of the new struts
- Take off plastic cover of the hole for the ball studs on the side that did not have strut
- Install the 4 new ball studs (hint: you can take off the old ball studs using the small wrench for changing the bit, you might also need a needle nose plier to turn the ball studs, as the space is a little tight for the wrench)
- Install the struts back to Carvey, making sure to install the bigger (gas) side towards the lid.
