Broken Hood Release on 67

[Mark P.]

I have scanned the archives and did not find a solution to help me open my hood.

When I pulled the release handle the driver side latch released, but the passenger side latch did not release. I am able to prop the driver side open several inches and have attempted several times to "fish" a 10 guage copper wire with a hook in an effort to snag the latch mechanism and release the cable. After 20 minutes of attempting to snag the release mechanism I thought I would to appeal to this board to see if there is a better approach.

Thanks in advance for your feedback---Mark

[Eric J.]

Go from under.

Try jacking it up ang going in from the underside. I have done this before. Eric

[Mark P.]

Re: Broken Hood Release on 67

Eric

The expansion valve for the a/c is right in the way and blocks my ability to get my hand near the latch.

Anyone else have a suggestion?

Mark

[Stephen L.]

Re: Broken Hood Release on 67

If you can see the latch from the right under side, would you be able to direct/guide someone with the "wire approach" you mentioned to snag the latch from the drivers side. I assume the cross cable is broken/ disconnected at the passenger side end.

[Gerard F.]

Re: Broken Hood Release on 67

Mark,

You'll never get your hand in there from the underside. You need to go in there with a rigid or semi-rigid rod with a hook in the end from about the position of your exhaust heat riser. Look for the little flat bar lever (inboard) on the latch where the lever spring is attached. That flat bar lever needs to be hooked and moved forward to the car against the spring action.

Forget about trying to hook a wire from the drivers side, unless the problem is with the driver's side cable end. If so, then you could just pull on the cable.

Jerry Fuccillo
#42179

[Eric J.]

Re: Broken Hood Release on 67 *NM*

[Eric J.]

Re: Broken Hood Release on 67

Mine doesn't have A/C.. I still think the underside is your best/only bet. Get some photo's for reference. Eric.

[Mark P.]

Re: Broken Hood Release on 67

Jerry
OK, I agree with you that the best approach is to move the in-board lever forward, but I can not fathom how I can accomplish this as my access has been across the motor from the drivers side of the car.

Eric
With the A/C piping obstructing my view it makes it impossible for any visual guidance to find the lever from the bottom side of the car and I am not able to get my hands anywhere near the lever due to the piping.

I welcome any and all suggestions.

Mark

[Joe R.]

Re: Broken Hood Release on 67

Hi Mark:

I have a 67 factory air car that happens to have its front end up in the air right now with the passenger side splash pan removed, so I decided to go out in the garage and look at things with the added advantage that my hood is already open. Wow, what mess trying to figure out how to get to the release lever on the passenger side!

However, I came up with a method that worked quite well but it is kind of like threading a needle.

From under the car I was able to clearly see the release lever that needs to be pushed forward. I had an available three foot section of half inch steel rod that I was able to push up from underneath into the position shown in the attached photo (top view). Since I can only attach one photo, the second URL below will take you to a photo that shows where the rod came out underneath:


You can get an idea of the angle by looking at the relative location of the exhaust pipe and the idler arm that appear in the bottom view photo.

What made this work was that the rod was resting against the insulated pipe that comes out of the top of the A/C evaporator case, so the rod could pivot against that point. If you study the top view photo carefully I think you will see what I mean about the pivot point. After the rod was threaded into position, pushing the bottom end of the rod toward the back of the car caused the top end to move forward and push the release lever forward.

The piece of steel rod that I used was just what I had available, but I think the ideal piece would be 3/8 inch and maybe two feet long. You may find that some of your hoses are routed differently and may need to be moved aside, but if you can get a rod in the location shown, I think you will be able to relese the latch.

[mike cobine]

Re: Broken Hood Release on 67

I put up some pictures on CF the other day for a guy whose wife is going to make his life miserable this weekend. If you can't get it with Joe's suggestion, you might try that. You might use someone underneath to guide a hook into place.




http://forums.corvetteforum.com/showthread.php?t=1

[Mark P.]

Re: Broken Hood Release on 67

Joe & Mike

Joe I am forever indebted to you---I got it open in less than five minutes using your method and the photos that Mike posted were also helpful. 3/8 rod by 30 inches in length was perfect. With an A/C sytem it is not possible to see the lever. Of course now that the hood is open and looking from the top side it looks like it should be simple--it ain't.

Last evening I was contemplating the use of my sawsall, but you guys advice and the bar saved the day for me.

I need to provide payback to someone for your ramdom acts of kindness.

Mark

[Joe R.]

Re: Broken Hood Release on 67

Hi Mark:

I'm so glad that this method worked for you. It seemed reasonable to investigate the problem for you because my car is perfectly situated right now with the front end up in the air and the splash pan removed. All I had to do was go out to garage and look at the situation, with the benefit of having the hood open to start with.

Besides, I have always worried about the same problem happening to me. I had previously read on the tech board that the way to recover is to remove the splash pan and go up from underneath, but I was a little alarmed when you reported that this method does not work for a factory A/C car. Now I have some idea of what to do if this situation ever happens to me.