94 Hood latch broken - access from wheel well?
08-02-2009, 02:51 PM
#1
Burning Brakes
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94 Hood latch broken - access from wheel well?
I saw someone post on here how to release the hood from the passenger side wheel well? Anyone care to share some details?
I got the wheel off, and the plastic trim out of the way, I saw the end of the silver hood latch cable, and I can feel my way up to some sort of chunk of plastic/metal about 4-5 inches, it apparently is not connected to anything... so I can't really pull on it to open the hood. What else can I do to get this hood open? (And I can't find my zipties that I had attached from above, I'm thinking they snapped off at some point...
Or should I just go spend the $20 on the tool to get it open from above?
I got the wheel off, and the plastic trim out of the way, I saw the end of the silver hood latch cable, and I can feel my way up to some sort of chunk of plastic/metal about 4-5 inches, it apparently is not connected to anything... so I can't really pull on it to open the hood. What else can I do to get this hood open? (And I can't find my zipties that I had attached from above, I'm thinking they snapped off at some point...
Or should I just go spend the $20 on the tool to get it open from above?
08-02-2009, 06:21 PM
#2
Safety Car
You need to push the rubber seal down across the wind shield.
I used small screw drivers.DON'T PUT ANY PRESURE ON THE HOOD OR WINDSHIELD.If you get a bright small light you can look from the wiper arm over to the drivers side and you will see the top of the latch.I would get a strong piece on coat hanger or I used one of the pieces of an old corvette seat ,the metal pieces are heat treated .The piece only needs to be about 6 to 8 inches to grab the square piece hanging out at the end of the latch. The hard part is to keep the meatal inline with the wiper arm to get the correct angle.keep tring you will get it ,don't put downward presure on the hood .Make just a small hook at the end of the wire .I would also check your hood release inside the car.Most of the time when the hood cable breaks you can still see the metal cable that was attached to the hood release arm.
I would get a pair of vice grips and pull on the piece of cable that is still inside the car.I have used both methods.
I used small screw drivers.DON'T PUT ANY PRESURE ON THE HOOD OR WINDSHIELD.If you get a bright small light you can look from the wiper arm over to the drivers side and you will see the top of the latch.I would get a strong piece on coat hanger or I used one of the pieces of an old corvette seat ,the metal pieces are heat treated .The piece only needs to be about 6 to 8 inches to grab the square piece hanging out at the end of the latch. The hard part is to keep the meatal inline with the wiper arm to get the correct angle.keep tring you will get it ,don't put downward presure on the hood .Make just a small hook at the end of the wire .I would also check your hood release inside the car.Most of the time when the hood cable breaks you can still see the metal cable that was attached to the hood release arm.
I would get a pair of vice grips and pull on the piece of cable that is still inside the car.I have used both methods.
08-03-2009, 01:04 PM
#3
Melting Slicks
That's what I did this weekend to get mine open, always pays to have some vise grips handy. Once I open, I readjusted the cable and installed an emergency release cable so that won't happen again.
