1974 Hood latch question
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Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 84
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From: San Juan Capistrano CA
1974 Hood latch question
Hi, I'm having some trouble getting my hood to close easily. the passenger side latch goes in easy, but the drivers side seems to get stuck, and I've had to use a screw driver to manually slide the lever under the hood. Once closed, the under dash hood release works well. Any suggestions on this?
Drifting
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,645
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From: Schaumburg IL
Check manually the motion of the slide latch and use some white grease on it. Also try to look at the alignment of the hood pin cone to the hood latch. Sounds like there is an alignment issue of one or the other. Best work on it because sooner or later the inside level will not release the latches and the you have a PIA.
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You can rig a pull cord to access from under the car in the event you can't open it with the hand release. I know several people that have done this...just in case. haha
Safety Car
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 4,652
Likes: 80
From: Lakeland Florida
Does the release mechanism on the hood latch not work? The cone of the assembly has a slot in it where you can use a screwdriver to increase or decrease the tension on the spring for the closure. On the hood the latch assembly has a curved area that will close around the hood pin. It may be that their is too much pressure from the spring to the flat part that does not allow the curved area to release properly.
kdf
kdf
Drifting
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,645
Likes: 11
From: Schaumburg IL
Look inside the wiper tray directly behind the latches and there are two plugs you can knock out and get a small screw driver through to push the latch open. Or with a lot of monkey dexterity you can get to the latches from the bottom.
