Hood Adjustment

[millerxcrunning]

I appreciate everyone that just kept reiterating that it just needs taken apart and lubricated while moving the spring back and forth by hand. I thought for sure it was some part that needed replaced, but after taking the assembly off my cruiser and working it by hand with some WD-40, I couldn't ask for a better hood latch!

 

[aktundra]

Related problem, may as well add it to this thread. When I pull the dash release lever, my hood doesnt “pop” up. In fact if there is snow on it, I have to put a C clamp on the dash lever to hold it open, while I run around and lift the hood up to the safety latch release lever.

My front end has been apart so many times, I’m sure I forgot to put something back on.

Does somebody have a pic, of whatever part, provides the spring to get things started ?

(All you chuckleheads with the lube giggles, better not pile on with my ED problems !!!)

 

[Heckraiser]

When my latch started crapping out, I hosed it down with silicon garage door lubricant and it regained function after that. Best practice is to adjust the latch all the way to the lowest point, then adjust the bumpers up to reduce hood "flutter" at highway speeds. I have an aftermarket hood that doesn't quite fit, so it will never be perfect. I really wish I hadn't cut up my stock hood

 

[Heckraiser]

Related problem, may as well add it to this thread. When I pull the dash release lever, my hood doesnt “pop” up. In fact if there is snow on it, I have to put a C clamp on the dash lever to hold it open, while I run around and lift the hood up to the safety latch release lever.

My front end has been apart so many times, I’m sure I forgot to put something back on.

Does somebody have a pic, of whatever part, provides the spring to get things started ?

(All you chuckleheads with the lube giggles, better not pile on with my ED problems !!!)

I had this problem too. Replaced my hood struts and now it pops up just fine. The old struts were strong enough to hold the hood up, but not reliably (cold weather, wind gusts, etc).

 

[aktundra]

Weak Struts are probably it.
Using a stick for a prop now

 

[Tools R Us]

Is the big spring there on the latch? Know of a couple that have fully dead struts, and the hood still pops. If the latch is lubed, working correctly and the bumpers are properly adjusted, it should pop. Some markets didn't get the struts, just a prop rod.

 

[Heckraiser]

I had both problems, but even after getting the latch to work by lubing it, still didn't get the hood to pop up until I replaced the struts. I bought a spare latch mechanism, but never installed it.

 

[rons1957]

Resurrecting a thread about hood flutter. I have the same problem. The solution seems to be to adjust the hood latch as far down as possible but there is not a lot of adjustment and in my case there was not enough to eliminate the flutter. The temporary solution, which was more of a test, was to take a plastic tube spacer, cut it length wise and stretch it over the catch attached to the hood. The idea being to thicken up the catch and force it to draw the hood tighter. You need to be careful to position the tube back far enough so it does not get caught in the V at the front of the latch mechanism. That causes the hood to be hard to open. Start thin and work up until the point that with the hood closed, you cannot lift the front and feel the slop. Using the corner spacers are not the solution. Set those so that the hood level matches the fender level and leave them alone. The picture demonstrates the temporary solution as well as the problem.

So as you can see, the catch is worn causing some of the slop. Likely the latch is also worn causing additional slop. The long term solution would be to pull the latch and elongate the mounting holes to provide more adjustment or to tig weld the back side of that catch to thicken it up a bit. Either solution will result in being able to draw the catch a bit further down to eliminate the slop and the resulting flutter.

 

[Michael Hanson]

Hi, Also as stated above weak hood supports cause a lot of problems. Mike

 

[rons1957]

Hi, Also as stated above weak hood supports cause a lot of problems. Mike

I could see where that would cause an issue but does it cause the front of the hood to bounce?

 

[cahill]

Just throwing this out there that maybe when people talk about hood flutter they may be using the term to mean something different than comes to mind to me and perhaps others. When I hear hood flutter I am thinking of the hood fluttering/deflecting in the mid area of the hood at highway speeds. Pretty sure this type of flutter is not related most of the time to the latch unless your hood isn't latching at all and is bouncing up and down as you drive down the road. Hood flutter that I am picturing is from the adhesive between the hood cross braces being old and cracking and no longer adhering the hood skin to the hood bracing. that is easy to tell by just putting some pressure with your had to the mid hood and if it deflects it likely has separated. Pop open the hood - take off the hood insulation and you'll see the bracing and likely deteriorated adhesive and the gap left between the bracing and hood skin. If that is your problem than you need to re-adhere the hood skin (large wobly flat sheet metal) to the the braces. Would hate to have someone messing with hood aligment and ajusting latches etc tryin to fix a problem that is unrelated to the latch mechanism.

 

[rons1957]

Just throwing this out there that maybe when people talk about hood flutter they may be using the term to mean something different than comes to mind to me and perhaps others. When I hear hood flutter I am thinking of the hood fluttering/deflecting in the mid area of the hood at highway speeds. Pretty sure this type of flutter is not related most of the time to the latch unless your hood isn't latching at all and is bouncing up and down as you drive down the road. Hood flutter that I am picturing is from the adhesive between the hood cross braces being old and cracking and no longer adhering the hood skin to the hood bracing. that is easy to tell by just putting some pressure with your had to the mid hood and if it deflects it likely has separated. Pop open the hood - take off the hood insulation and you'll see the bracing and likely deteriorated adhesive and the gap left between the bracing and hood skin. If that is your problem than you need to re-adhere the hood skin (large wobly flat sheet metal) to the the braces. Would hate to have someone messing with hood aligment and ajusting latches etc tryin to fix a problem that is unrelated to the latch mechanism.

OK. That's kind of what I suspected. That is not the kind of flutter I'm seeing. I'm seeing the front of the hood bouncing up and down. Kind of like Jeeps with the old rubber hold downs when they are running into a strong head wind. Not a lot but enough to make you nervous and pronounced enough that a friend test driving it asked if the hood was latched. The latch is locked and the secondary latch would catch the hood if it were not so it is not a safety issue. More of an annoyance. Now with the corner supports set so that the hood corners align with the fender, the latch dropped to the bottom of its travel and the remaining slop taken up with that spacer, the flutter (of the kind I'm seeing) is gone.

The kind of flutter you are seeing is interesting as well. I've never pulled the insulation to see how they are bonded. On most cars it seems that the support structure is spot welded to the hood. Odd that they would use an adhesive on these. I'll have to take a look one of these days.