How to: Open hood without cable - Help! Hood won't open!

[rb142]

Also my cable was not broken but the outer plastic outer jackett had worn through where it makes a 90* bend behind the battery. So when I pulled on the release handle the cable pulled through the outer jackett & didn't pull the hood release far enough to open the hood.

Yeah, that's exactly what happened to mine too, many years ago. It's a pretty common failure.

 

[Mil1ion]

A better example would be to take a photo with hood closed and place an arrow to show where to insert a tiny slim screwdriver.

 

[Lee185]

I tried taking a few pictures with the hood closed but none came out very well.

If you try to stick a screw driver in between the hood & the grill you will have to push down on the grill a bit to get the long skinny flat blade screw driver to work.

What I did aswell was reach inside the grill with the screw driver & pop the latch from below, if you look at the picture you can see the release is about an inch above the cable, if you keep that in mind you'll find it easier, although its hidden pretty well, you have to stand to the right & look between the hood & grill in order to actually see.it.

Hope this helps, Lee

 

[Mil1ion]

I'm still having an issue with this.
I may not be the right person for this since I've lost my fine motor skills from the stroke....i have to wear glasses to see up close and my eyes sweat making everything blurry....plus i have a balance problem caused by neck muscles.

I've tried 4 different screwdrivers and a special hooked tool i made.
Basically I'm fumbling around without success.
; (

 

[herlilred96]

how i have to open my hood.

Just thought I would throw my 2 cents in here.
Not sure if my cable has stretched or what but it doesn't pop when I pull the handle so I was kind of nervous about the thought that another person may not be around sometime to hold the handle open while I pushed up the secondary latch and then how would get the thing open???
so, now I keep a small stick of wood in the cab and put it under the handle to keep the latch in the open position while I go out to release the safety latch, poof! It opens every time.
Nit sure if that will apply to your situation but it's worth a try. ☺

 

[Mil1ion]

Just thought I would throw my 2 cents in here.
Not sure if my cable has stretched or what but it doesn't pop when I pull the handle so I was kind of nervous about the thought that another person may not be around sometime to hold the handle open while I pushed up the secondary latch and then how would get the thing open???
so, now I keep a small stick of wood in the cab and put it under the handle to keep the latch in the open position while I go out to release the safety latch, poof! It opens every time.
Nit sure if that will apply to your situation but it's worth a try. ☺

Thanks for that.
I'm going try one thing first.
My neighbor who isa welder os going to bend one of my old screwdrivers to a 90* end likea hook on the blade end...and weld a T handle on the grip end so i hold it firmly to pull on it.

Have you tried adjusting the latch and sprayed penetrating fluid and lubricanton the main latch?

 

[atspring]

some times it helps to bang on the hood while someone else pulls the cord. I'm sure you'll get it

As kids we did a similar thing with the TV. It actually worked!

 

[RickOTR]

Well I found a you tube video that pointed me in the right direction & I got my hood open.



Heres what my safety release latch looks like (its the hook shaped piece right above the cable) on my 96 XLT Ranger 2WD 2.3L It was not in the same place as the one in the video.

Also my cable was not broken but the outer plastic outer jackett had worn through where it makes a 90* bend behind the battery. So when I pulled on the release handle the cable pulled through the outer jackett & didn't pull the hood release far enough to open the hood.

View attachment 308142

Better be careful the po-po isn't around or you'll have a lot of explaining to do, or else you'll end up in the pokey.