How to realign sticking/stuck engine lid latch?

[sugarwood]

My engine lid was starting to stick a little bit after I'd pop the door pillar latch. I'd have to yank up on the lid to pop it free.

Upon closer inspection, I noticed the male prong was unscrewed a bit, and had some play, so I tightened the "crown" nut down all the way.
You can see it in the top of the photo below.



This removed the play in the male prong. This was a mistake.
When I closed it, now it was truly stuck (since the male prong no longer had any play)
Looking under the lid gap from the side, I was just able to get a thin jimmy bar onto the male prong and push it enough to pop the lid. (Whew!)

I'm glad I got the lid back open, and really don't want to close it until this is properly addressed.
This is one of those silly things that can cause a huge headache.
I loosened back the male prong so there is some play again, but want to fix this properly.

It looks like the male prong is not aligned right. I added some grease to the prong so you can see where it is landing.



It is slightly off center. How is this addressed?
Should I realign the male prong?
Do I adjust the female receptacle?
Or, do I really need to readjust the entire engine lid?

Thanks for any direction on this one!

[AJ's 911]

From your first pic it looks like you can adjust the male prong a half an inch back on the lid which should alleviate the point off contact from overshooting the receptacle.

[sugarwood]

Thanks AJ. I screwed the crown nut all the way back in, and adjusted the prong back a little bit.
Latch is working fine now. That's a load off!

[AJ's 911]

Providing pics and a second set of eyes definitely helps! Glad it was an easier fix!

[sugarwood]

I think I was focused on taking a photo of the grease (and a bit stressed) so I failed to see the 2 adjustment bolts!
Thanks again!

[RSBob]

For those ever adjusting that thang, remove the grill first in case you get the lid stuck like this poor guy so you can easily unlatch

[fred cook]

You can put a wide piece of masking tape over the latch hole and then gently lower the lid until the male portion just makes a dent in the tape. Adjust as needed, check with a new piece of tape. You should have it nearly perfectly adjusted in a couple of tries! If necessary, you can remove the muffler and access the latch via the little gap between the engine tin and the body.

[sugarwood]

A quick caveat for anyone doing this in the future.

Recall that I used locking pliers to hold the knob open for an extended time while I jimmied the lid open.
This extended pressure apparently caused the end of the latch wire to slip a few mm's under the adjustment screw behind the female latch.
This slippage resulted in the deck lid staying open since the inner catching latch was now in default open position.

It's a simple adjustment to unscrew, and push the latch arm back a little bit on the wire, and re-tighten.