I need some advice. The hood release cable has broken about a foot into the cable sheath that runs from the interior release handle to under the hood (1995 XJS). That means that there is still cable, possibly, inside the sheath between the driver side under hood latch and the interior cabin. Does the sheath run through the driver side fender well on it way to the latch? If it does, I might be able to get a hold on the cable there and open the hood. Any ideas on how to get the hood open so I can replace the cable? All suggestions are welcome. Thanks.

 

It does not on mine, but mine is an 85. At a guess you may need to remove your front grill and bonnet bolts to free the far end of the bonnet to get yourself enough wriggle room to free the mech. There may be a better way but your would need a more experienced opinion.

 

I believe the later cars have a different release mechanism from our vintage. I think you have to PULL it to release the bonnet.

Greg

 

cybercg, You have my sympathy. I have wondered about this problem and how to get the bonnet released if one of the little cables were to break. I have pondered attaching extra cables to each latch and letting them just hang down under the car so as to be accessible in the event either the left or right side cable broke. I may do that now that yours has broken.
Can you not reach the sheath under the dash and remove enough of it to get to the place where the cable broke? Possibly a Dremel tool with the small 1" cutting wheel would do this. The trick will be to avoid cutting the cable inside the sheath.
Please post if you are able to get it fixed.
Cheers, RagJag

 

cybercg, The problem is there because some engineer in England decide that the old latches were not complicated enough, I believe. Engineers do these thing very often and 'improve' something and make it worse. Of course the cables last beyond the warranty period. I hope some Jaguar tech will chime in to explain the fix if there is one.
RagJag

 

Long live the Jag engineers in England!!
I am going to remove the kick panel and carpet to see if there is a remnant of cable leftover that I can pull. If not, then I will see if I can somehow reach the latch trip lever from underneath the car. If that doesn't work, then I will try to disengage the hood lifts/struts from underneath the car and then remove the hood hinge bolts. And before all that I will check the inner wheel well to see if the engineers thought to put in an access port. I'll bet that they didn't. I am still open to ideas if you have them. Thanks to all.

 

1. Grab cable remnant, if any, from cabin side and pull: The cable sheath heads up and toward the engine to pass through the firewall to the latch.....somehow. To get to that passage hole appears to require removing a good bit of the driver side, USA, HVAC ventilation system. Not gonna do it because I do not believe that has a good chance of working.
2. Uncover an access port in the inner wheel well: There isn't one and cutting one would require some wild guesses on my part. Not an option at this point.
3. Tripping the latch from underneath the car: The latch isn't even visible from under the car. I know where they are located but are not accessible.
4. Remove the hood: This looks to be my best bet. I removed the grille and can see the four bolts that hold the hood to the front hinges. I just have to set an appointment with my son and son-in-law to come over and help.

I will provide an update once accomplished. If there is a better way, please do let me know. Thanks.

 

Looks like you are giving it a good try, cybercg. If all else fails you could cur a nice 1" hole in the bonnet at the correct place and then put a chrome cap in the hole after unlatching the bonnet. Drastic I know but if all else fails...
Not sure that unbolting the hinges will allow you to get to the cable, but worth a try before cutting a hole. Very sticky little problem. I am surprised that some forum member hasn't had this happen and could help.
I am curious, was the cable difficult to get the bonnet unlatched before it broke?
RagJag

 

The hood release was not difficult to operate at all before this happened. No indication of any binding of the cable, just a normal pull. The cable pulled out of the cable sheath, so I have about 10 to 12 inches of cable still attached to the pull lever. The cable is all nice and shiny with a clean cut end that used to attach to the driver side latch.
I have ordered a replacement cable from Paul's Jaguar in Ft. Lauderdale (Thanks for the sympathy Paul) and am arranging for my son and son-in-law (Volvo mechanic) to assist me with the process of removing the hood hinges and sliding the hood forward to slide the hood pins out of the latches.


I will update the forum with my progress and add pics if I have the presence of mind to take a few during the process.


Thanks for all the suggestions! If a Jag mechanic is online, please feel free to offer a better solution if there is one.

 

cybercg, sliding the bonnet forward may work, indeed.
Luck, RagJag.

 

• The Definitive Answer – Sort of
  I began the process of trying to release the hood from the front hinges and pulling the hood latch pins out of the latches by assembling my work team. That approach did not work, but we did find a workable solution and discovered a couple more.

1.  
   1. Removed one front hood hinge bolt to determine how long it was. If long, we were going to try and just loosen them and slide the hood forward. The bolts were short so the decision was made to remove all four.
   2. Once all four hood hinge bolts were removed, we began trying to move the hood forward. It moved about a quarter inch or so, but no more. As I feared, the flared ends of the hood latch pins were not allowing us to pull the pins out of the latches. The hood lifts did not fight us since they had some age on them and weren’t that strong. The lifts do push the hood toward the car’s nose.
      We noticed that there was enough clearance to raise the hood sufficiently to peer underneath and actually see the hood latches and the latch pins. The decision was made to unbolt the hood latch pins from the hood. Four hex nuts hold on each latch pin.
   3. Success after much stretching and mashed arms!! The picture below shows the removed hood latch pins and the portion of the hood release cable that sheared off. The cable sheared exactly at the driver side hood latch pull lever.
   4. Now that the hood was open we bolted the hood back to the hinges so the lifts would hold it open. The new hood release cable was installed and the latches lubricated and tested for proper release over and over and over.
   5. The hood was then realigned for proper clearances at the windshield cowl and both fenders. Aligning the hood was much easier than feared. Just be careful and lower the hood slowly holding it from the center to check alignment.
   6. The hood latch pins were reinstalled with the hex nuts just snugged so the pins could move and self align upon the first hood closing.
   7. We closed the hood and the hood latches engaged. Holding our breath, we pulled the hood release and much to our relief, the hood latches released.
   8. We opened the hood and finished tightening the hood latch pin bolts. Additional adjustments were made to the latch heights to achieve a cleaner release.
2. What we learned.
   1. Removing the four upper hood hinge bolts allowing the hood to lift just enough to get to the hood latch pins worked. But rather than remove the hood latch pins, it would have been quicker to remove the two bolts on each hood latch that secures them to their mount brackets. It would have been a bit simpler for the release, but would have required more latch adjustments once the release cable was replaced.
   2. We also considered grinding off the hood pin flares once we had them off, so the pins would slide out of the latches should this problem ever happen again, but looking at the way the pins mate with the latches, the flares might be there for a reason and not just a manufacturing fluke…………………..so we left the flared ends as they were.
   3. Another workable solution, would be to cut/drill a one inch or greater diameter hole in the inner fender wall from the wheel well side. If cut in the proper location, it would provide easy access to the driver side hood latch and in my case would have opened the hood. We did not try this, because, without the hood open, the correct location for the hole could not be determined and we did not want to cause extensive damage to the inner fender with exploratory cutting or risk cutting through a wiring harness that might be on the other side. But, the picture below shows where a cut could be made. There is already a hole in the inner fender used to route the cable harness from the driver side cabin to the engine compartment. The newly cut hole should be about an inch or two above the existing hole. The latch could then be tripped using a wire hook.
3. I am very glad to get my hood open again without causing any damage to the XJS and am very grateful for the suggestions and sympathy from the Forum. I still may hold a grudge against the Jaguar engineers for not providing a cleaner solution to this problem when the facelift XJS was first designed. I’ll even bet the subject came up in the design meetings and was shelved because no one thought that the cable would ever fail the way that mine did. And, if it did, it would not be warranty issue anyway. J

 

I think we can all agree that you thoroughly deserve the XJS Persistence and Creativity Medal First Class for this fix!

I believe the wider ends on the pins are to retain the bonnet in the event of a shunt. Good move not to grind them off.

Greg

 

:icon _clapclap::icon_clap clap: :icon _clapclap:

 

WOW.....This definitely needs to be added to the FAQ / HOW TO section...superb!

I've also aded RESOLVED to the title as it will help others I'm sure.

Thank you

 

As described earlier in this string, we removed the hood bolts and lifted the hood as far as we could without damaging the aft edges to remove the hood latch pin bolts. This freed the hood from the latches. Another possible solution that we did not try because we just could not see the latches and our arms weren't long enough would be to try tripping the driver side latch using a long screw driver or such. We could not see nor did we remember how the latches were constructed, but now that pictures of the latches have been posted, they could assist someone in tripping the latch and avoiding having to remove the hood latch pins.


Since you can get a new hood release cable for less than $25, it might be money well spent to go ahead and replace your hood release cable. Thanks to everyone and I hope that this does not happen to anyone else.

 

Excellent idea to get a new cable as preventive maintenance.
Greg, please explain what a 'shunt' is as pertains to the hood latch pins. I can't see any reason to flare the ends.
RagJag.

 

Well, it occurred to me that in a hard enough frontal collision, the bonnet might fold upwards in the middle, thereby possibly pulling the rear of the bonnet forwards. Under these circumstances the bonnet would be restrained by the pins from coming loose at the rear. Just an idea, but you can be sure they are so made for a purpose.

Greg

 

Greg, I see your point. A hard collision could make that happen, I suppose, however the bonnet would still be attached at the hinges in all probability. If such a collision should happen, I do not see any obvious safety concern since air bag and seat belt should be in play. I intend to remove the flare on my pins at first opportunity. All owners should just follow their own instincts as to this inconvenient poor design.
Cheers, RagJag

 

when did this flared end originate? No such flare on my '89

 

I believe it happened when the factory changed the closing mechanism to sprung closed, rather than sprung open, as on the pre facelifts. On the later cars you have to pull against the catch spring mechanism to open the bonnet. On our earlier type cars as you know, you push the lever over-centre and the bonnet catch springs then open once the cable is no longer under tension.

My money is on the change being a safety thing, on our cars if the cable fails, the bonnet pops open onto the flimsy safety catch. On later cars, of the cable fails, the bonnet stays closed, too closed!

Greg