Help me open my hood

[sy605]

Re: Help me open my hood

Unbolt the part the latch catches on. Forgot what it's called. Its bolted to the core support. It's three bolts or so. Loosen them through the grill or from below with a ratcheting wrench. Then with that part loose it will raise enough for you to use Jimmy's method.

Can't remember if its possible without looking at my truck. Just another thought.

 

[InvisiBill]

Re: Help me open my hood

Well, I found the problem.

This is a shot looking straight up from below. The grille is at the bottom of the pic, the radiator/core support is at the top. I unbolted the latch support at the bottom and pulled it out away from the radiator. You can see the catch pin is down too far and caught under the back edge of the latch hole.

I tried getting at it with my breaker bar, but there's not much room between the support and the radiator to get something in there. I'm not sure how easy it'll be to try pulling the hood forward while pushing it down to get it unstuck from the edge of the hole. I also thought about trying to pound (hammer & block of wood) the support/latch back a bit to try to free it up.

 

[fivetodrive]

Re: Help me open my hood

Like I said get a long ass extension and tap that sucker!

Or maybe get a few people and attack it like you said above. I see it with 3 people. Have two people, one on each side of the hood at the cowl, pulling towards the front of the truck and a third pressing down on the hood at the latch, also use the locking pliers to keep the hood cable open.

 

[InvisiBill]

Re: Help me open my hood

I'm planning to get back in there this weekend when it's a little warmer and drier. I just haven't had the motivation to go lay on the cold floor again when I know better weather is coming.

I'm hoping I can just tap it with my breaker bar (the silver thing in the pic, holding the support away from the radiator at the time). I had it up against the safety latch earlier. I just need to adjust a few things in my approach, as I was running out of hands for holding the light, prying the support away from the radiator, and then actually trying to hit the latch. A coworker also suggested getting a pipe with a diameter matching the midpoint of the cone on the catch, so it would sit on the cone and allow me a little more control in trying to move it. I'm hoping I'll just be able to give it a quick whack and bump it back into the hole though.

 

[Quickstop [UK]]

Re: Help me open my hood

You could drive really fast at a speedbump/pothole and aim to hit the bump at the same time you are braking. The bump would dislodge the hood at the same time the braking propels the hood forward enough.

Then again, maybe not.

 

[InvisiBill]

Re: Help me open my hood

A guy at work had some 1/2" black steel pipe left from when he ran compressed air lines in his garage. We cut off a chunk about 26" long. It was the perfect size to slip up the support and over the end of the catch rod. I just levered it back against the bottom, which popped the catch back into the latch hole where it was supposed to be.

The first thing I did after opening it was adjust the stops and the catch where it bolts to the hood. Hopefully I'll never have to deal with this stupid problem again, but here's the info in case someone else runs into it in the future. I'm assuming it was just a perfect storm of the catch being back a little too far and the stops being a little too low, allowing it to go all the way through the latch and get caught on the edge.

 

[fivetodrive]

Re: Help me open my hood

Glad you got it!

 

[wildphil]

Re: Help me open my hood

It's good the hear you got the problem taken care of. That was a unusual issue.