Today i was going to do the 7 pin mod on my truck. After opening up my dash, i came across an old car alarm that the PO never told me about. So since i was already there, i made up my mind to remove that alarm before it starts giving me problems. While removing it, i opened my hood (this turned out to be a good thing) to remove the alarm wires going to the battery.
It took me about an hour to do the 7 pin mod, and remove the alarm. I finely had everything done, and started screwing on the last two items, the levers for the fuel, and hood release. I reach down, and tested the fuel door lever, everything was fine, next i tried the hood lever. As i pull on it, the cable broke off up inside it's casing. Right then i started thinking to myself, what would i do if this happen miles from home, how would i get my hood open?
I then did a search on Mud to see how other members got their hoods open. I came across 3 different ideas, the first was to reach up from underneath the truck to unscrew the anti theft latch. I have to say, since i have a hidden winch mount in the way, there is no way that would work for me. Plus from what i read this is a real pain in the ass way to open your hood, and You'll need arms about 4 feet long. Next was an idea to have one person push down real hard on the hood, while someone else pulled on the cable with vice grips, since my cable snapped off up inside it's casing, this was a no go. Last, i came across what a member called plan "C" this involves busting the plastic grill out of your truck to get at the latch, smashing the grill out of my truck is a DEFINITE no go, so plan "C" is out.
So i though to myself, we need to come up with a plan before we are locked out, So this is the idea i came up with.
First i started out with some .095 cable, windshield washer tubing, shrink tubing, and some crimp fittings.
Now i took one end of the cable, and looped it around the hood release arm inside the hood latch, and crimped it in place. The release arm that this cable goes around is the same release arm that the inside hood release uses.
Now i attached the rubber tubing to the inside hook release cable.
I formed the other end of the cable into a loop, and covered it with shrink tubing.
This is what the finished product looks like.
Please take note, this cable is totally hidden from view behind my grill when not in use, and is only pulled out through the grill opening in case of an emergency. Now i know some member may like this idea, and some may not. But at least with this in place, if your hood release fails, you've got a backup way to open your hood. And we Mud members, are all about backup plans, right?
And before anyone asks, yes i am going to replace the inside hood cable, this is just for emergency's.
It took me about an hour to do the 7 pin mod, and remove the alarm. I finely had everything done, and started screwing on the last two items, the levers for the fuel, and hood release. I reach down, and tested the fuel door lever, everything was fine, next i tried the hood lever. As i pull on it, the cable broke off up inside it's casing. Right then i started thinking to myself, what would i do if this happen miles from home, how would i get my hood open?
I then did a search on Mud to see how other members got their hoods open. I came across 3 different ideas, the first was to reach up from underneath the truck to unscrew the anti theft latch. I have to say, since i have a hidden winch mount in the way, there is no way that would work for me. Plus from what i read this is a real pain in the ass way to open your hood, and You'll need arms about 4 feet long. Next was an idea to have one person push down real hard on the hood, while someone else pulled on the cable with vice grips, since my cable snapped off up inside it's casing, this was a no go. Last, i came across what a member called plan "C" this involves busting the plastic grill out of your truck to get at the latch, smashing the grill out of my truck is a DEFINITE no go, so plan "C" is out.
So i though to myself, we need to come up with a plan before we are locked out, So this is the idea i came up with.
First i started out with some .095 cable, windshield washer tubing, shrink tubing, and some crimp fittings.
Now i took one end of the cable, and looped it around the hood release arm inside the hood latch, and crimped it in place. The release arm that this cable goes around is the same release arm that the inside hood release uses.
Now i attached the rubber tubing to the inside hook release cable.
I formed the other end of the cable into a loop, and covered it with shrink tubing.
This is what the finished product looks like.
Please take note, this cable is totally hidden from view behind my grill when not in use, and is only pulled out through the grill opening in case of an emergency. Now i know some member may like this idea, and some may not. But at least with this in place, if your hood release fails, you've got a backup way to open your hood. And we Mud members, are all about backup plans, right?
And before anyone asks, yes i am going to replace the inside hood cable, this is just for emergency's.
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