Hood release broke, How do I open the hood?

[MustangP51]

My Hood release just broke and the hood won't open. I'm pretty sure the cable broke since the handle moves freely. I spent a half hour trying to find a way to open it but had no success. I'm not home, and my Explorer is in a parking lot which makes this more difficult, but I can get tools from the hangar if needed.

Anyone know how to open the hood?

 

[MustangP51]

bump, need some help

 

[Kyle0614]

you could take the bumper and the grill off maybe that way you would have easier access to working on the hood latch assembly

 

[Turdle]

OK
I was able to use a real long -skinny blade screwdriver.

grind the tip to 1/4 inch wide.
Now-Make a bend to about 60 degrees about 3/4" down from the tip. This you can reach up into the latch and slide the mechanism to the right. You'll see a slot right to the left of where the cable goes in-
the metal in that slot is what needs to slide to the right-
do you see it? Once you get e grasp of what needs to happen, you'll figure out which tool to use or make.

It will try your patience, but it can be done.

 

[MustangP51]

Ok, thanks JT ill try that tomorrow, I ran out of daylight today.

 

[dogfriend]

I had this happen last month. Luckily, I knew it was about to break (it was getting rotted away where it touched the battery) so I already had the new one on hand.

When it finally broke, I used a set of needle nose pliers to reach into the grill just to the right of the latch and grab the cable. Pull as much out as you can (its already broken) and then cut the cable as far away from the latch as practical. Then strip away about 1/4 - 1/2 inch of the outer housing so that you can grab the inner wire with pliers and pull the wire to open the latch.

 

[little boy blue]

solution

i had my hood release break a while back...the thing to do..is to look under your dash where the cable goes through your firewall....take a pair of cutters and split the plastic line in two....usually some wire will be exposed and you can pull it that way with a pair of pliers. If that doesn't work...go to the front of the explorer stick a pair of needle nose pliers through your gril and grab the cable and pull it to the right...this will release your hood. Granted you will have to keep doing this every time you want to release your hood it does work.

 

[MustangP51]

Ok, I got it open this morning, Jon's method worked, It took me at least an hour to get the latch to release. The cable broke right at the latch mechanism so splicing into the cable under the dash wouldn't have worked.

Thanks Jon