Gentlepersons:

This morning before making the 340 mile back to work for the week, I decided to check fluid levels and went to open the hood...SNAP goes the hood latch cable! I found an earlier post on the BB about the ol' 240 snapped hood latch cable that described reaching up from below the car with a screwdriver and move the latch towards the driver side, I tried that. Unfortunately, that post was on a pre-91/92 that did not have the aux cooling fan in front of the radiator that BLOCKS access the the latch assembly from below!

While driving to work I had plenty of time to think about possible approaches to get the hood latch to release but I have NOT tried any of them yet, here they are:

1: Before the anger and dismay subsided my first thought was an air chisel or sawzall through the hood, whew, glad I calm down quickly!

2: Use a hook or slim jim between the top of the grill and the bottom of the upper core support, try to hook where the cable used to attach and pull to release.

3: Use a hack saw blade between the top of the grill and the bottom of the upper core support in order to cut the removable twist pins that hold the grill in place. Then remove grill and manually reach in to release the latch. I'd rather not cut up a blacked-out 92 grill that is in perfectly good shape, they are kind of rare and hard to find.

4: If there is a flat head screw driver slot in the tip of the hood mounted striker pin, I might be able to unscrew the striker pin thus opening the hood. Does anyone know if the striker pin has a slot, I simply can't recall.

Just curious to know how others have tackled this issue as it is a highly annoying problem.

jorrell
ps. The car doesn't use or lose fluid so I didn't consider it a high risk trip without being able to check.

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92 245 250K miles, IPD'd to the hilt, 06 XC70, 00 Eclipse custom Turbo setup...currently taking names and kicking reputations!