Hood is stuck!!!

[EScanlon]

Gregg:

I think you may find that the ONLY way you are going to be able to open the hood again, is to attack it from the front.

If pulling on the Hood Open Cable doesn't do it, then you've either forced the hood shut, such that now it's actually being pushed upwards by the cowl weatherstrip and the hood bumpers and adjusting bolts, or the hood latch pin is off center on the locking mechanism and no amount of jiggling it is going to get it to release.

You could try to yank on the release cable, and may find yourself having to buy a new one.

Trying to reach it from below may work....if you have long skinny arms and can reach up from below, past the exhaust manifold, the fuel lines, brake lines etc, and THEN find the cable end inside the latch mount. But, if it is indeed stuck, then you're just going to find that you're still shut out and now you're even more frustrated.

So, from the FRONT of the car, remove the bolts holding the hood to the hinges. This ALONE may be enough to shift the hood enough to allow it to release from the latch.

If it doesn't, then you need to prop the FRONT of the hood as high as you can without bending or forcing the metal. Then reach in from the side, or from below if you can reach that high, and using a 10mm wrench (or ratcheting wrench, a regular ratchet/socket is too tall), remove the bolts holding the hood latch pin on the hood. Don't waste time on the hood latch itself, as releasing it won't release the pin. By removing the pin from the hood, you'll be able to re-mount the hood onto the hinges and open it.

FWIW

E

[Darrel]

I agree with attacking it from the front. There is a chance that the hood latch bracket on the firewall was bent down causing the lathc to bind. I was able to loosen the hinge bolts and the hood popped up.

[280z1975]

Thanks for all the ideas guys ... I actually wasn't able to read them till just now after the whole fiasco was done with ...

:D THE HOOD IS OFF :D

So how did I do it. I attacked that bad boy from the below.

Now to the other two solutions: 1) Cut the hood off - This would have worked but it costs me money to replace the hood and repaint one or buy a cool Carbon Fiber one (the thought crossed my mind).

2) Attack it from the front - I thought about this but there are some issues I had, mainly the fact that the hood is under pressure from the tension bars of the hood hindges and releasing the hood that way would lead to some serious work and wouldn't help the situation as the hood can't go any farther down from the position it was in at the front.

So now to how I got it off. I went with the unscrew from the bottom approach. I guess somewhere along the genetic line the traight of moneky arms was kept in my genetic gene pool because I was able to reach, be it VERY UNCOMFORTABLY, with the car on a lift. I then used a 10mm ratchet wrench to turn the bolts. Make sure you use the smallest one you can find, the mechanic had one that was about 5 inches long and was perfect size, mine at home was way to long. Also, have the wrench face the front of the car as you have good clearance on that side. It's a bit more uncomfortable to reach that way, but the work is much less.

Also, my hood cable was fully realeased when pulled. If you dont' have a spare buddy, or the car is on the lift like I had it, use a set of vice grips to keep it fully released by clipping the cable when it's pulled tight. Works quite well.

Again thanks for all the help and suggestions. This wasn't a delay I wanted or needed, but at least it's over with.

So now I am going to be $^!# scared to close my hood again once I attach everything. :tapemouth

[kenz240z]

Hi Gregg, glad to hear you were able to open the hood on your Z. Before you try closing it again, you may consider removing the hook/spring/pin from the hood and the latch from the car. Verify that both are in proper working order. It may be a good time to clean and lube the moving parts.

Next, slowly lower the hood to make sure it will go down all the way without binding. Once you're sure it is on the car straight then reinstall the the latch on the body and loosely mount the hook/spring/pin to the hood. Now slowly lower the hood and verify that the pin is centered on the latch. Re-position the hook/spring/pin on the hood until it looks good, then carefully close the hood all the way. Hopefully this will prevent it from locking up again...