How do you open a longhood that has an improperly adjusted latch?

[john_colasante]

Scenario: you are adjusting the latch on a longhood 911 (early 911) and now the pull does not disengage the hood.

What are the tricks or techniques to open it? Would prefer not to have to cut a hole in the hood.

[john70t]

While adjusting, I ran an extra cable under the front rail through a small hole in behind the drivers turn signal.
New cable, and added several cable-stays(small cylinder with a screw through the center and a sideways hole for the cable) in case the latch screws slipped.

[john_colasante]

Thanks, but that's not the problem. The cable pull still works but the latch is adjusted to far over to disengage when it's pulled.

[Elombard]

Is it just like the engine lid? take the handle off and it releases all the way? That wont help will it.... you are talking about the latch body mounted on the front rail. Its over too far. You know who helped me alot when my engine lid stuck. TRE had some great suggestions.

My front latch will not stay latched, I have been fooling with it for a year. I probably need to move the latch body over but I would hate to run into your problem.

How about a nice aggressive drive to move things around up there a little?

[cegerer]

John - I don't think there's an easy solution. Pretty sure you have to take the bumper off just to get access to the latch! -- Curt

[john_colasante]

The latch would not stay shut. After playing with the spring adjustment for a while I moved the part of the latch that is on the hood over a little bit and that made it stay down permanently. That is the problem. Taking the bumper off, how does that give access? Is there a hole there through which you can unlatch the sprint thing from below or something?

[john walker's workshop]

factory manuals show where to drill a hole to pop the latch after removing the bumper. sometimes the latch releases fine, but the head of the hood pin gets caught under the edge of the hole in the latch. working the hood side to side or hitting it from the front with the your palm can release it.

[john_colasante]

Originally posted by john walker's workshop
sometimes the latch releases fine, but the head of the hood pin gets caught under the edge of the hole in the latch.

Yes, that's exactly what is happening since I moved it over too much. Thanks for the advice everyone.

[techweenie]

Generally, you need a partner in crime to keep the release pulled while you push the hood back, pull it forward, and alternately lift one front edge and then the other. The plunger will move just enough to release -- usually.

Another alternative is to just drive it and chassis flex will cause it to release. Just have your 10mm sockets handy.

I have an "unadjustable" release on my '73 that I've probably adjusted four dozen times, and the only way it stays closed for any length of time is if it's jammed.

[LakeCleElum]

John - I had that problem on a '73.5.....I had someone pull the handle. I then pushed down on the front of the hood and moved it it one side (I forget if it was to the left or right)....That was just enough for it to release...Give it a try before you pull the bumper.....

[Gunter]

Two people, one pulls the handle, the other manipulates the hood. Worked for me.

[project911]

This is probably the most frustrating thing I've dealt with so far while working on my car.

The key.....

is time and patience.

On my engine lid I wedged the latch handle fully open with a something (screwdriver, piece of wood), and kept fiddling with the hood. It eventually released.

Took me four 15 min attempts with breaks in between to avoid building up to much frustration.

Good Luck

[Zeke]

What they said about pulling the latch and lifting one edge while holding the opposite down. Stiff plastic spatulas can be very useful. However, you don't need two people, just a pair of small vise grips to hold the extended pull handle while you work the front. I've had a couple of VW's that were so tweaked in the front that I had adjust them to not open to keep them down and use the vise grips each time I needed gas.

Long time ago, young and poor.

[cstreit]

Ahhh... Vicegrips, always come into play when things get desperate...

[450knotOffice]

On a similar note - question: The last owner didn't align the front edge of my hood correctly so I figured I'd do it myself; Am I going to have a latch problem when I'm done aligning the hood or should I just accept the misalignment and not tempt fate with a latch that may end up jamming or, conversely, not latching at all?

What do you experienced Pcar tinkerers think?

[Todd Simpson]

Any chance you could sneak a 10mm wrench or socket on the bolts that hold the latch to the hood? Loosen those and you could get the alignment right to unlatch.

Another option would be to unscrew the pin itself, if the locknut isn't already tight.

[john70t]

John what I meant to say was:
Tie saftey wire to the latch pull mechanism,run it along the front next to the normal pull cable guide, and (already there in my case) run it through a small hole in the side of the trunk box in behind the removed LF turn signal.
Wrap end around nail to act as a T pull handle from inside the turn sig box. It`s a straight-line pull on the latch.
I`ll post a pic later if neccesary.

[Series900]

In all the hood latches ,Once and only once did this happen to me, frustrating as all get out, Cursed for hours. finally gave up all pushing prying, took the bumper off, and sliced the front bulkhead open, got the pin released. Replaced the upper and lower latches as they were problems to begin with and welded up the incision. Bastahd day, wished the fuel tank was out, pulled hair for to long, and billed accordingly. Good fluck :>)

[project911]

I wonder how many have converted to hood pins after dealing with this...

[techweenie]

I've personally reached a level of frustration that has caused me to experiment with something other than the lame VW part Porsche uses on pre '74 cars. If my experiments go well, I will share...