Hood latch alignment help
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 393
Likes: 0
From: Holcomb Mississippi
Hood latch alignment help
Fletcher and I have been working on his 72 and have a question. The hood was misaligned and we aligned it by loosening one of the hinge bolts up top on each side. I then crawled under the car and loosened the other. After that, we aligned the hood to get the gaps as equal as possible. We then tightened all back snug. The problem is that the striker?? does not hit the latch to open the hood. Sometimes it will, sometimes it will not. I tried moving the front pegs over just a bit but still cannot get consistent contact. Any suggestions?
andy
andy
Le Mans Master
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 6,304
Likes: 278
From: Ocala FL
Don't close the hood. 
I've known people who cut their hood to open it because they had the catches loose and they moved around instead of opening when the cable was pulled.
Move them a bit, then tighten. You could smear something over the latches to show where it is hitting, such as white grease or shaving cream and then when it closes, you can see where everything is hitting.
I've known people who cut their hood to open it because they had the catches loose and they moved around instead of opening when the cable was pulled.
Move them a bit, then tighten. You could smear something over the latches to show where it is hitting, such as white grease or shaving cream and then when it closes, you can see where everything is hitting.
Pro
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 567
Likes: 5
From: bradenton fl
trick i've used for long time. take tin foil and wrap on inner hood over female latch and lower hood. (do not shut) will show u where contact (indent) is being made by male pin. adjust as needed. Shouldnt take more then 3x per side to line up perfect. Body man showed me this back in the late 70's.
Racer
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 332
Likes: 1
From: Watkins Glen New York
Funny, but I just did this yesterday myself. I had one corner of the hood by the windshield popped up to high.
I took out one shim and the fit was great, but had trouble getting it to latch.
I wrapped the "U" shaped hoop that is attached to the hood with white masking tape and that made it easy to see where things were making contact.
I agree that during testing, you need to make sure things are tight so they don't wander around and get stuck.
I took out one shim and the fit was great, but had trouble getting it to latch.
I wrapped the "U" shaped hoop that is attached to the hood with white masking tape and that made it easy to see where things were making contact.
I agree that during testing, you need to make sure things are tight so they don't wander around and get stuck.
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 393
Likes: 0
From: Holcomb Mississippi
more info
Thanks all but aligning isnt exactly the problem. I used the duct tape method to line up the female and male parts of the hood. The part that's not lining up is the actual hammer part (i know term is incorrect). Its the piece that opens the latch itself when you pull the release from the inside. I can see it by looking up from the side panel. The release hammer is too far to the drivers side of the latch. I tried adjusting this piece by moving it toward the passenger side as far as it woud go but there's not much adjustment there.
andy
andy
