Tricks to adjusting a 62 hood latch? (1 Viewer)

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Jul 13, 2015
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Samish Island, WA
Hello, my hood latch just gave up the ghost and I have purchased an aftermarket one but can't get it to work either. (OEM one on order). The issue is the primary latch will not catch. Any tips to get these things to work? Not understanding why the primary won't rotate down and catch. It won't even work when I slam it- which is probably why the old one went TU. Looking for tips to align it.
Full disclosure- Its an aftermarket hood, the old one got damaged when the hood flew open (hence the new aftermarket latch). The cowl is now dented, but I was able to get the old latch to work until it didn't.
 
Just getting it to latch would be a start.
 
This is from the toyota manual. It's not that helpful...assuming you have the lateral adjustment for the latch "ok", then maybe there is some vertical adjustment you need.

Does the latch rotate down, but just not far enough to catch? try moving the latch vertically as far as it will go. Next you can try lowering the bumpers at the front corners of the hood. There doesn't seem to be any adjustment of the striker on my OEM hood.

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You might soak the OEM latch in solvent overnight, and give it a good lubing. Many old hood latches get rusted or gunked up and no amount of spray lube will recover them when still mounted to the truck. Then, clamp the latch in a vise, and use a screwdriver to simulate the hood striker, so you can fake latching the hood. Watch it and study how it works (or doesn't). Some latches work in strange ways. Exercising the latch in your vise will give you the confidence that it will work in real life (when the hood is hiding what's going on).
 
I can't seem to get either one to rotate down in the vice. I would expect it to move pretty smoothly, but neither one rotates. We did the soak trick and lube last time to get it to work. Worked for a while but pretty sure its failing. Not sure why the new one won't rotate, but its a cheap Thai repo. I went on Amayama and ordered a new OEM one. Hopefully they can fill my order. Going out to the shop after lunch to play around with it.
 
Are you maybe missing a part? Hard to describe but here goes.

Make sure you have the long (aprox 12 in or so long) brace that sits behind the grill & in front of the radiator.

If for some reason it is missing or loose, it will make it hard to latch…no matter how hard you slam it.
 
Make sure the hood brace bolts are tight.
I think that was part of the problem. My bolts were loose on the hood hinges. But there were other issues too.
 
Are you maybe missing a part? Hard to describe but here goes.

Make sure you have the long (aprox 12 in or so long) brace that sits behind the grill & in front of the radiator.

If for some reason it is missing or loose, it will make it hard to latch…no matter how hard you slam it.
Yes, it was there and tight. I tried to get the repop part to work, but no dice. Cleaned and lubed my old one, adjusted it a bit, and working again. I've ordered a new Toyota one, so should be good. Note- the reproduction part I bought was Taiwanese, not Thai, but nonetheless it was crap and didn't work. I should have known better. I got the latch to work again. For how long, I don't know. Thanks for everyone's help.
 

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