Stuck hood . . .

[Cyberc@t]

I think I posted to the right forum. My hood is stuck on my 1997 Ford Explorer AWD 4x4. I've soaked the entire mechanism with a liquid wrench-type goop. It worked to unsieze various other locks and catches on the same vehicle. I've had a lot of various problems with this vehicle and it's almost come to the last straw for it . . . planetary gears, drive shaft problems, dash board constantly lit up like an Xmas tree. Oh yeah, the reason I'm trying to get into the hood is it was smoking from the rad . . . can't fix that unless I can get INTO it. Multiple rad / coolant / heating / temp gauge problems for 12 months, you name it, it's been fixed and replaced . . .

The lever under steering column, can be fully expanded. Makes no 'thunk' noise like it should if it releases.

The upper half of the mechanism on the hood, to the right, fully expands.

The lever on the left (where yuo put your thumb) seems to be fully jammed. Gives your basic clunk-of-uselessness sound.

It isn't frozen or full of ice. I hit a deer at Warp Factor 9 about 2 years ago so most of the plastic is substantially mulched, and one light, but hood didn't crumple, etc. I just need to get into the hood at this point . . .

I drove home in the cold AGAIN last night. Cold, wet, mad . . . tried for a while on side of road, gave up and drove it anyway, thermostat likely stick open. Then when I got home I fell out of the truck on ice and smashed my head. I don't know if my E-mail shows up in this forum but it's hawleyt@algonquincollege.com if someone has any ideas besides sawing it off. Hmm, I guess I will be outside kicking my Ford Explorer for a while hoping that liqui-mess does something useful . . .



tanya

 

[daffy]

Get someone to help, someone push down / rattle the hood while the other works the release under the dash.

Worked in the past for me.

 

[JDraper]

Just ran through the same problem with my buddy's Explorer. The cable had stretched. We could pull on the lever as much as we wanted, but it didn't go far enough to release the hood. I finally got under the dash and while pulling the lever full out, pulled down on the cable with a pair of visegrips. This yanked the cable a little farther and the hood popped open. Quick trip to the dealer for a new cable and all was good again.

 

[reserved50]

depends, battery acid might of ate thru wire, can you feel resistance when you pull the release? if not theres a secret spot on the latch i forget where, you can screw driver to bypass the safety. i found that out when I sat there for an hour trying to unbolt the thing

 

[IZwack]

I dont run a grille so its a bit easier but one night, the hood got stuck and with a screwdriver and some tweaking, I was able to get it open through the grille area.