Broken hood cable

TNT25169 · 02-21-2007, 07:28 PM

I know this is a stupid concern but the cable for opening the hood to an 87 944 Turbo that I'm taking apart broke and I can't get the hood open now. I tried getting at it from the bottom but the turbos have so much crap packed in there that's it's impossible. I am thinking I should remove the front bumper and see where that puts me. Anyone have any advice?

John

Wipeout · 02-21-2007, 08:20 PM

Did it break under the hood or in the cabin? Mine broke at the handle, that was an easy fix.

TNT25169 · 02-21-2007, 08:34 PM

under the hood, when I took it apart to see if it was at the handle I pulled out about 4 feet of cable with the handle, not what I wanted to see...

Wipeout · 02-21-2007, 08:51 PM

Ugh! That sucks!

Eldorado · 02-21-2007, 10:02 PM

only thing i know of to do is reach up from underneath... might have to get someone with skinny arms... take the belly pan off and see if you can see part of the cable hanging down... grab it with some pliers or vice grips and give it a yank.

Razorback1980 · Razorback1980's Garage

Might try cutting the cable housing where it runs through the firewall and reach under where the brake booster is and the cable should be on top of the frame. You might be able to pull it down to the bottom of the car and look for the remaining cable. The only other thing I can see that might help would be pulling the cooling fans from underneath and reaching up from the bottom but I don't remember if the cooling fans attach at the top or not. Other than that, I think your plan of pulling the bumper or nose piece would have to be the best option.

Eldorado · 02-21-2007, 10:44 PM

cant pull the nose piece with the hood closed... if by nose piece, you mean the piece with the badge on it.

the rad fans have screws on the top and bottom, so that wont help ya much..

pull that belly pan off with the car on ramps or jack stands and see if you can see the remaining piece of the cable.

if it broke right at the latch, then... i dunno

Razorback1980 · Razorback1980's Garage

Ok, so Kyle killed my two thoughts...The only thing left is to try and reach up on top of the frame and try to pull the remaining cable under the car. Other than that, I don't know.

Porsche-O-Phile · Porsche-O-Phile's Garage

This is an immensely frustrating problem - I had it happen on my project car. The only way I found to remedy it was to get the car on ramps, drop the belly pan, remove the electric fans (from the bottom - carefully, since there's no way to disconnect the battery first) and wedge a crowbar up into the bottom of the hood latch. I literally had to destroy the lower part of it in order to get it to release - truly this is one of the stupidest aspects of 944 design I've ever come across (and I've come across a few). Sourcing a new lower latch piece was also difficult - something like $65 at the dealership. the new latch will incorporate an emergency "pull to release" wire that hangs down and gets tucked in behind the fans someplace - haven't quite figured out how to rig it up, but in case that stupid cable ever pulls out or breaks again, there's no way I want to go through this process again.

Removing the lower latch piece is a real joy too - you have to drill out the rivets, enlarge the holes in the body and fit new bolts/nuts onto them, which are damn near impossible to get at from the bottom.

I sincerely hope you have better luck than I did. This is something that turned into (literally) a $100 project (new cables aren't cheap either) and took an ENTIRE day to fix. Good luck.

TNT25169 · 02-22-2007, 08:48 AM

The good news is I'm parting the car out so anything I damage I dont need to replace. The bad news is anything i damage I won't be able to sell. I have the car on jacks and I can see up but there is no way anyone with arms of any sort could fit their arms up through there, damn turbos packed way too much stuff under the hood. I'm pretty sure the cable broke right where it connected to the latch so I'm screwed on that aspect. How many bolts/screw are there to remove the fans from underneath?

Eldorado · 02-22-2007, 09:02 AM

there should be 6 bolts that hold the fans in place...
at least, i think that's what there is on my car..

TNT25169 · 02-22-2007, 09:09 AM

That's assuming I'm able to get to them...

Wipeout · 02-22-2007, 09:44 AM

be sure to take a photo of you flipping off the hatch after you get it fixed.

Razorback1980 · Razorback1980's Garage

If that's the case, you probably are not going to be able to sell the hood anyway as the shipping costs will be high. Get out the jig saw and make a hole you can reach through.

87944turbo · 02-22-2007, 10:30 AM

Quote:

If that's the case, you probably are not going to be able to sell the hood anyway as the shipping costs will be high. Get out the jig saw and make a hole you can reach through.

That is exactly what I would do. Hoods are a dime a dozen and a general PITA to store, ship, work around etc. We had a hood stuck on our parts car, but at least it was popped open and you could get to the screws and drop the top part of the latch.

Eldorado · 02-22-2007, 12:12 PM

i think it's time to take some anger management issues out on the car... armed with a crow bar and 20lb sledge, you should be able to get that thing popped open in no time.

PCA 944 · 02-22-2007, 04:19 PM

I suffered through the exact same thing. I was lucky in the fact that it occured on my project 931, which had a large enough gap to reach through. Even so it took multiple days and a lot of scratches to get that hood open.

Good luck.