I had an idea.
And since the engine is back out of the car I'm trying it out.
Everybody removes the passenger side torsion rod when they put in a 3800SC.
Some people remove both of them.
My spring didn't touch the pulley but it was VERY close to it.
So I'm going to try to move it.
I don't want to buy gas struts.
The car didn't come with them and I don't like them on a Fiero.
If this doesn't work, I'll cave and buy a set.
But we gotta try, right?

First I eye-balled a spot on the hinge that I thought would leave enough room to have the 3/8" hole in the center and still have meat on the outside to retain its sturdiness.


Drilled it out...


rounded it off... A little black paint and it's ready to go back in.


This is what the driver's side looks like with the deck lid open.


One of the attachment points...


The other attchment area. The part that tucks inside of the hinge box is shaped like an upsdie-down J on the end. That J fits around the pin, seen below.
In this picture you can also see the hook up at the top. This is where the passenger side torsion rod gets held.


So I screwed the pivoting arm, that I modified, back onto the deck lid, snapped the spring back over the hook and tried to get the other end to slide back up into its pocket that you see here.
At this point the spring is already under tension so you kinda have to push and pry it back into place. it didn't want to cooperate so I put a rachet strap onto it an pulled it forward just a little bit. Then once it was seated as it needed to be, I tightened the strap until I was able to get the pin back into the factory location (center).


Ignore the chain. That was what I used to hoist the car up with. I used the lip under the gasket to secure the other end of the strap.


This ishow tight the spring is to the deck lid with it open.


This is the other side for comparison.


This is the modified side while closed.


The other side, unchanged.


One step closer to putting my sticker to good use...


Then it started raining again. So I got to take a break.
Now the suns out again. Back at it...

quote Originally posted by 2002z28ssconv: Everybody removes the passenger side torsion rod when they put in a 3800SC...

Ryan Gick's (Darth Fiero) install, at least the one he did for me, didn't require any mods to the hinges or springs.

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RickN
White 88GT 5spd (<10K miles)
White 85GT (SC3800 Series II w/ AOD)
White 99 F250SD 7.3PSD 6spd
1956 Ford 860 Tractor w/ Freeman Loader
20Ft H&H Tilt Bed Trailer

Mine did not require modification or removal either.

I moved the coil packs,so I didnt have to modify the decklid springs...

The motor mount came from WCF. Perhaps others move the engine lower into the cradle.
The spring was about an 1/8" away from my pulley.
I guess another solution would be to use a smaller pulley too.

Now that the engine is back in the car I can show the end results.

The spring is still close to the pulley but just far enough away that I'm not worried about it hitting the pulley if the engines moves around a little.