Gather 'round and learn from my mistakes.

I'll try to keep this short.

An occasional issue of the hood not popping open on the LH side was becoming more frequent and more urgently in need of correction....as it was reaching the point where I feared that, one day, I wouldn't be able to open it at all.

Adjusting body panels for proper fit and function is not one of my favorite things. It can be frustrating and time consuming. And, hood latch problems are not unusual on these cars....the more typical issue being that the hood pops open while driving.

Anyhow.......

I initially though the latch simply wasn't releasing. Not the case at all. The problem was that the pin was fouling the latch. Lots of adjusting yielded no satisfaction. I'll skip some of the gruesome details and get right to the point: I stupidly hadn't noticed that the hood was slightly loose on the hinge, allowing the hood to shift position on the hinge whenever it was opened and closed. You can imagine how this would complicate making proper adjustments at the pins.

By the time I discovered this I had totally 'lost the rabbit' with respect to adjusting the hood and pins. That is, I had lost any baseline settings and gotten things well and truly bollixed up, requiring starting over from square one. I removed the pins and adjusted the hood for a good fit.

Reinstalled pins. Hood won't. pop open.

Years of neglecting the issue had distorted the sheet metal where the pins screw in. As the hood closed the pins were skewed, putting pressure on the area and distorting it slightly and thus preventing the pins from passing into the latches cleanly.

To fix this I found two bolts of appropriate length and thread type and cut the heads off. I used a bench grinder to form a point at the end of the bolts and screwed them into the hood.

I used masking tape to cover the entry holes in each hood latch. When the hood was closed the pointy-end of the bolts punches thru the masking tape thus indicating the position of the bolt relative to the latch. The idea is that the bolts should enter the latch dead-center in the hole. Mine were clearly off-center. This required exerting pressure against the bolts to re-form the sheet metal mounting area of the hood. After a few tries I was able to 'center' the bolts. The hood pins were reinstalled. Adjusting the depth of the pins was the last and easiest step.

All done; hood pops up easily each time.

So, remember, find and fix the source of the problem, not just the symptom.

I'll add that tackling frustrating problems as the end of the day can make things worse. I spent a couple curse-filled hours doing battle on this problem one evening after work. The next day, with a fresh start and clear head, I had the problem correctly identified and repaired in 30 minutes.

Cheers
DD

 

My lump is back to starter ills. I suspect "back feed" engaged it with engine running. Son says, no, just too close to the exhaust down pipe.

Apology for hijack.

My car's bonnet has stuck at times. I use a beat up old big screwdriver and a rag to protect the paint. Just a slight pry at the rea edge close to the "culprit" latch and it pops open!!

Carl.

 

Great work !!

And for sure A fresh start and a clear head sure does work. It has helped me tons of the time.

Carl

 

Post confusion. Apologies!!!

 

fortunately I have never had any problem with the hood opening or closing. Obviously unmolested.

 

Doug that is a great idea to line up the pins and latches, I have my bonnet off on my Series1at the moment after refitting the engine and was concerned about lining it all up as I've had the problem before of getting it stuck closed.

Something to be aware of is rusting of the bonnet at the hinge mounting bolts and the bonnet suddenly separating from the hinges. This happened to me a good few years back when coming home from work traveling at about 50mph, the bonnet suddenly dropped at the front amd hooking the throttle cable with the safety latch, the car took off at an alarming rate, the faster the car went the air lifted the rear of the bonnet higher and pulling on the cable even more. Standing on the brakes I negotiated a roundabout at 70mph before knocking it out of gear and killing the engine but needed a straight stretch of road to do it due to the steering lock kicking in. Replaced the bonnet with a factory NOS item very quickly.

 

Solving a problem in 48 hours would be a record for me.

I had a ton of hood latching, not latching, popping open while driving, etc problems. Spent about a month fiddling with it. Finally replaced the 20 pound hood latch springs with 10 pound springs and the problems magically went away. I, like you, Doug, was getting worried about getting permanently "locked out".

Jeff

 

I'll bet that made your little heart go pitty-pat!
(';')

 

It was a bit of a "Holy brown trousers Batman" moment!

 

I'm impressed that you had the quick thinking of realizing the steering lock mechanism would come into play during that panic moment! Good on you!

 

The engine can be turned off without the locking the steering by simply not turning the key to the lock position.

Not to detract from Nigel's deft handling of the situation, mind you !

Cheers
DD

 

I wasnt too sure I'd hit the right detent on the lock at the time as the lock was a bit floppy on the column, if I'd got it wrong I would have gone straight through the mobile home site on the other side of the roundabout. See grab from Google of the site.