Hood won't latch...

[stock87gt]

I never thought I'd have this problem but it began yesterday. The same day some debris gauged my door on I-94 and the same day my charging system went kaput. The damn hood won't latch!

Had this problem on my last 5.0 but it was actually that chunk of metal in the hood catch that eventually commited suicide and broke out after years of hood closing. This time it's not as obvious to me. The large springed hook mechanism-watcha-call-it catches but the actual hood locking mechanism doesn't. I took some pictures I thought might help.

Nothing seems to be blocking the path of the hood, nothing I've seen has looked out of place and everything seems to be operating correctly. But I have noticed since I owned the car it's become more and more of a pain in the ass to pull the hood release and culminating in my having to pound the front of the hood the other day just to get it to release so I could pull the lever.

 

[cardudeusa]

Time for a fiberglass hood and hood pins J/K. Might just be the lock is bad and time for replacement.

 

[mousetrapcar]

something like that happened to my car but it never became difficult to release the hood. it just all of sudden couldn't close and i finally figured out that the latch assembly was bent out of place. i just bent it back with a big screwdriver and it has worked fine ever since. hopefully you just have a small probme like that. good luck

 

[stock87gt]

What part did you bend? I checked mine out as best I could and the hook catches, but the central latch assembly just bounces around on that springboard and doesn't latch into the springboard hole.

 

[bort.]

What part did you bend? I checked mine out as best I could and the hook catches, but the central latch assembly just bounces around on that springboard and doesn't latch into the springboard hole.

this just started happening to mine.... i have to push the hood release lever back in, in order for the hood to close. PIA.......

 

[stock87gt]

Funny you say that! I tried that to no avail.

And on a side note I checked out where I thought it should latch and there weren't any marks. When I bent it it made a mark where I thought it should latch but still didn't latch. It's funny how simple this mechanism is and how much grief it's giving me. :worship:

 

[mousetrapcar]

wait a min, when you put the hood down does it sit all the way down? cause from the pics it looks like the latch is already in the closed position.

 

[stock87gt]

It sits about an inch too high and bounces around. I can even lean on the front of the hood so it's in a closed position, but get up and it springs back. (these smileys are great)

 

[MustangPunk302]

wait a min, when you put the hood down does it sit all the way down? cause from the pics it looks like the latch is already in the closed position.

He is right, go pop the hood latch and then slowing close it while looking up at the latch, and see if it is hitting anywhere.

 

[stock87gt]

If by hood latch you mean the spring loaded 'S' looking thing enclosed in the assembly pictured in hood1.gif, then that isn't catching on anything. The hood is bouncing around on the springboard and the lip around that isn't catching on the latch. There aren't any signs of the latches moving out of place.

 

[mousetrapcar]

damn, i'm stumped. maybe something is just stuck. have you tried wd-40? oh, but i had to bend the top part of it back(towards the engine).

 

[cenok is family]

man, can you guys really not tell? on the first picture, you can see that the locking arm is locked down already....my friends explorer was like that too. Just pop the hood and then go into your car and pull the hood popper. It should unlock the hook and let you close your hood again.

 

[cenok is family]

yeah, mousetrapcar saw what i see. if all else fails, go to a junk yard and get one for like 10 bucks.

 

[stock87gt]

Got it. There's a little tiny nub of a mechanism hanging off to the driver side halfway down the lock mechanism. I need to push down on that with a screwdriver before closing the hood. I guess the hood release is shot or at least needs some grease. Thanks guy!

Now time to find out why my car battery is dead...

 

[89Notch]

grosse pointe eh... I used to work for this valet company off cadeiux and mack back in high school for about 9 months. Worked a couple parties in grosse pointe at some NICE houses, and let me tell ya, i'd never seen so many HOT 16 year olds drivin range rovers down kersheval Once we were workin this party down off jefferson in detroit before grosse pointe and i was cruisin down 94 goin about 80 in the right lane in my old 94 dakota when i bit this HUGE pothole and blew the tire! It sucked, walked up to the gas station to call my mom came back down and my windows were busted up. What a day...

As for the hood latch, i dunno if this is your problem or not but there are two bolts that hold the latching device in place, and they are in slotted holes, so if the hood is loose, you can loosen those 2 bolts and slide the locking mechanism down and retighten it to hold the hood tighter. If you lower it too much then it wont lock and too high and it will move around. Now if your hood isn't even getting that thing to lock then its probably something else. Good luck!

 

[jerry beach]

Time for some hood pins when you start to have trouble with the latch. If you have ever had a hood fly up on you, you know it aint pretty. Driving down the road to the next turn off with your head out the window sucks too.

 

[MustangGT88]

Well, it sounds like the hood latch has just been pushed down too far from so many times of closing hood. This happened on another of my cars. Just try adjusting the latch so it sits just a tiny bit higher until you finally get it to close. That way it has enough room to latch all the way down. This should work.