hood won't open, and then it gets worse

[Mbrooks420]

My hood is stuck closed. My truck also has now got a weak battery and must a developed a leak in the power steering system. Now I'm damn near out of power steering fluid, and don't know what I am going to do when my battery dies. Also I pulled the fuse from my power wire and now I have no music.
I think the problem is with the part of the latch that is just above the grill. I think the screws may be stripped allowing the whole latch to move. Everytime I opened my hood I had to lower the hood bumpers a little. We,(my father and I) moved the latch up. HE tightned evrething and it closed fine. I opened it a few days ago and had to lower the bumpers again. Now it won't open. My power steering is probobly shot already but I need to get under there soon.
Any ideas? I was thinking about trying to get to the screws that adjust it. Anyone know if these are all that hold it on? The cable isn't broke. NEED HELP

 

[mrboyle]

Stuck hoods can be a pain in the :mattmoon: You will likely end up having to force the hood open some how. You might try holding the latch with a pair of pliers from underneath, while someone else trys to release the hood and open it.

 

[red96camaro]

I had the exact same problem not too long ago and after f*ck!ng with it for a while out in the hot sun and sweating my balls off I decided to ride down the road and get slushie, then bam, it pops up to where i could latch it open while driving. Worth a shot.

 

[Mbrooks420]

Well I took a crowbar to it and it opened pretty easily. Does anyone know if the part of the latch that is above the grill is supposed apear unlevel? Mine looks like it curves up on the passenger side. My hood bumpers still have to be low. The latch piece that moves when the hood open is pulled is way too stiff. Sprayed it with lithium, didn't help.

 

[Lemondrop]

The latch should be fairly level . It also has a side to side adjustment . If it gets unlevel or off from side to side it will stick the hood latch . Id level it forst and then lower the hood down and see if it is even inside the hood hole (without shutting the hood fully) or if it will need a side to side adjustment . Best bet is to check the attaching bolts for the latch and re-align the paint marks of the bolt heads to where it originally was and your problem should be fixed .

 

[MONMIX]

Hood latch alignment 101.
Take your grille off.
Take the latch off ,
Shut the hood make sure the gaps are even and the edges are level.
Pop off the little alignment pins , put the latch back on dead center and all the way up.
Slam the hood. Take an 8mm socket on an extention break loose both latch bolts. The hood should fall right into place. Apply light pressuer to the hood over the latch wile tightening the latch bolts.
Test a few times , put your grille back on cause you are done.

 

[Lemondrop]

Thats pretty much what I had to do when I installed a new hodd on my 96

 

[jssong]

if ur hood doesnt open.,... how would u go about taking ur grill off?

 

[MONMIX]

Originally posted by jssong
if ur hood doesnt open.,... how would u go about taking ur grill off?

You don't want to know

If it doesn't pop first thing I do is have one person pull and hold the hood release wile I pull up on the hood.

Doesn't work , I'll try to get to the latch bolts and unbolt the latch.

Steps after that can be pretty ugly.

 

[CBoug76]

I had the same problem (Could not open Hood).
But the cause of my problem was a Stretched Cable.

I was able to open my hood, by reaching up under my grill, finding the hood latch cable and Pulling on it real hard! Finally the latch poped open. The next step was to WD40 the ****e out of the Latch assembly and to shorten the cable. Now it works great!

 

[samdannaway]

There are some good ideas here for hood release. Any other ideas.

Aloha, Sam

 

[JDraper]

Originally posted by samdannaway
There are some good ideas here for hood release. Any other ideas.

Aloha, Sam

I've heard a sawzall will work wonders.........

 

[terdrocket]

how about dead hood shocks? mine gave out on me the other day, just missed my head comming down. i tried messing with them, but they are dead.

anybody know the part # and a good place to get the shocks that hold up the hood when open?

 

[Fusion213]

I should get some new shocks for my hood too. Last winter that thing came down on my head and that sure does hurt, especially the latch coming down on my back.

 

[98BlackXSport]

Ya, hood came down on me too. Slammed my fingers down hard. I think the only thing that saved them was the fact the I had a ring on and it took most of the pressure. Sure hurt like hell. Anyone know how much those hood shocks cost?