I put the hood on my 68 and it latched. I cannot get the hood open now. The hood isn't perfectly lined up but is in the fully closed position. The release doesn't release. Any advice will be appreciated.

Well I can tell you what not to do. When I was young and new everything. Ha Ha! I took a chisel and hammer to my 75 forumla fiberglass hood to release the latch. Thinking that I could fix it real easy. What a dumb Donkey

try spraying some pb blaster on the mechinism.and move the hood up and down as much as you can.you may get lucky and jar it loose

Is the release handle performing as it normally should (except for the fact it won't open)You could try and push down on the hood as you use the release.Is the release opening it somewhat but not enough to unlatch it? If so it is not fully depressing the little rod on the latch to "pop" the hood.If so you may need to reach in there and manually push the rod down to open here up and then do some readjustments.I removed my lever to make it very hard for someone other than myself to get quickly into the engine bay.

David

Takes two people. One repeatedly pulling the latch handle and the other wiggling the hood around.

I have tried pushing down on the hood and holding the bar open. Nothing helps. The hood is in the fully closed position.

blk68firebird: I was looking from underneath the car, where is this little bar that you push down?

Sometimes just holding the bar open doesn't do it. You have to keep pulling it while you jiggle the hood. That's why you need three hands.

It might help to undo some hardware for the latch support at the lower core support. Then tweak it around while someone tries to open the hood.

I do not think you can put a hood on misaligned that it would not open,unless it is raised at the back and it catches.I think you need to give the handle a GOOD pull towards you.You can pull forward and it feels like the "pin" is moving(and it is) but it is not moving any of the parts to release the latch at the top.The mechanisms pivot from the pin,it lifts upward and then pushes the top latch portion inwards toward the center to
"pop" the hood.I did a test on the latches i have here to prove the theory.The one with the bracket on it that the handle would mount to,i could pull forward on it with a motion i would use to open the hood normally and it did not lower the pin enough to start pivoting the internals as to open the hood.This may be your problem.If i went hard on it it would move the latch inwards as to open or if i pulled the pin down manually with my finger it would.Careful if you try to reef the handle hard as you may be in for a repair to the handle.In the pictures,look to the lower left hand side and you will see the "pin" and then follow it to see how it travels the rest of the mechanism.If you cannot get your finger up in there,try and locate it and use something flexible but solid and bend it to fit in there and pull downwards and it should pop.I really do not think the pin is travelling as far as it can when you are trying to open the hood.It needs just a smidgen more travel i believe.Hope this is of some help and goodluck!




What you see is facing towards the rad so you need to attack it from that point.

David

David's Quote;"I do not think you can put a hood on misaligned that it would not open,unless it is raised at the back and it catches."

Ah, yes you can! LOL I bought a 68 that the hood wouldn't open. Good price! Bad thing. I ended up using small vise grips to turn the threaded ends of the bolts that hold the latch mechanism in place. I got them just lose enough that the latch could move just enough to take the 'bind' out of it. Both my arms looked like I got in a fight with a cat when I was finished.

Any mechanism can bind if misaligned. Simply, if the applied force in the catch area exceeds the amount of applied force nessesary to make the mechanism operate, it will not release.

If you have to attempt to go at it from inside as far as losening the latch, your arms will look like the cat won the fight.

In addition to Jim's 3 hand opening, try this. While pulling the latch, apply firm pressure on the hood, and give the hood a healthy b!tch slap the in the latch area. Also a fist blow from the heel of the hand, instead of a slap, may do the trick.

(Disclaimer! If a hood gets dented from a too hard of a fist blow, it's not my fault that God created idiots.)

I got it. The problem was the part of the handle that makes contact with the pin was very worn and when I pulled the handle for the first time, it slipped over the pin. I reached up from underneath and pressed the pin down with a screwdriver and the hood popped. I need to look into getting another handle or possibly getting this one repaired.

Thanks for all the help and pictures.

Better lucky than good!

Glad to hear you got her to open!
Leave the handle off and keep the screwdriver handy

David

eBay and maybe other sources could sell you an entire hood latch mechanism if you need one. They come up failry often in eBay for around $100.00.

Just an FYI.