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Hood release


jiggity76
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Finally got my hood cable replaced on the cutlass and it works but it doesn't have the tension that I think it's suppose to have.  Pulling the lever is blah and the hood doesn't pop up once the primary cable/hinge is released.  The hood opens fine with the secondary but the hood stays in the closed position and like I said doesn't pop up.  Is there a way to adjust the tension on the cable to remedy this?  I want the release handle to have more of a snap or pop feel when you pull it.  Also, does the hood release handle cover on the floor the same between the sedans and coupes?  My cover doesn't seem to fit correctly after the replacement release handle was put in.  The original one was cracked and I got one from a sedan.  They look like the same shape to me but not sure.

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What makes the hood pop up is a spring on the hood latch itself. Sometimes corrosion/age makes them not jump anymore. Look in there and clean it up with WD40, you might be able to revive it.

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  • 10 months later...

Nice out today and tried the WD-40 thing but didn't help.  My parts car hood release works great and the hood pops up like it's suppose to when you pull the cable.  Going to switch it over and hopefully everything will work. 

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My local GM dealer could of ordered me a GM cable but it would have cost $118 bucks with shipping so I thought I would try the parts car one first.  The hood latch would be another $42 bucks too.

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My local GM dealer could of ordered me a GM cable but it would have cost $118 bucks with shipping so I thought I would try the parts car one first.  The hood latch would be another $42 bucks too.

$118 for a cable...smh.  That's the kind of thing that pisses me off....and I've been drinking all day lol.

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Not specifically W-body, but there are several points to be made.

 

1.  WD-40 is advertised as a lubricant.  It isn't.  The stuff is fukkin' worthless except to remove moisture, for example a distributor cap that's become conductive on the inside from excess water in the crankcase, or from the pressure wand of a car wash.  There's a million aerosol lubricants, but original WD-40 isn't one of them.

 

2.  The hood needs to be properly aligned with the rest of the body, including the latch mechanism.  A few cables break because the cable and cable sheath have rusted.  It's fairly difficult to lube the cable, at least to get the lube all the way from one end to the other end.  Most cables break because the latch isn't properly aligned or it's in poor condition, so it binds up or requires excess cable travel.

 

3.  There will be rubber bumpers in various places that provide cushioning and alignment to the hood.  Make sure they're all in place and in decent condition. 

 

4.  Inspect the latch for a bent arm.  Maybe you aren't getting it to release properly because there isn't enough motion at the latch itself.

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I keep a gallon of WD40 and a squirt bottle. As stated it's worthless as a lubricant but it can be used as a half assed penetrating oil to free stuff up before using a real lubricant. My favorite use for WD40 is when I scape gaskets as a rinse to remove little bits and pieces.

Most commonly I'll roll an engine over on the stand and rinse the cylinders out with WD.

WD = Water Displacer

Edited by Imp558
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The hood gaps look good to me and I used the parts car as a reference.  Once I get the hood open, I'll check the latch and again use the parts car as reference and make sure all the bumpers are there.  I've noticed that the hood cable doesn't go all the way flush against the plastic trim piece like the parts car one.  It sticks up once I pull it where the parts car goes nice and tight against the trim piece and has no slack so maybe there's something going on there.

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  • 4 months later...

A while back I had an hvac cable in the Bonneville that was sticky. It was a weekend and I wanted to put the dash back together so I stuck my vacuum pump on one end with a hunk of hose and sucked WD40 through it. It worked for that one.

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The hardest part is getting the hood open again.  Last time I jacked the front of the car up and had a buddy help me fish around under the bumper in front of the radiator from below and we finagled it somehow.  The routing of the cable wasn't that bad I thought.  I pulled the battery, windshield washer bottle, cruise control something I think, and of course the release handle next to the driver's seat.  I want to paint the latch to match the body since they did that at the factory but I also don't want to gum it up.  Been so damn humid here too so that will add to the fun!

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  • 5 weeks later...

Got the hood open today!  Hooray!  My buddy came over and helped me this morning.  The engine bay is super dirty and I plan on cleaner her up, getting all the dirt, leaves, and what not.  I pulled the battery, air filter tube, cruise control, and windshield washer bottle for the cable replacement.  Also put some new hood struts on her.

 

I'm going to clean up the original latch, pretty gummed up and is dragging not letting the hood come up and open after the cable does it's job.  If it's still not working right after I clean it up, I will replace it with a OEM latch.  I'm going to change out the aftermarket cable with a OEM one too just to be safe.

 

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The OEM replacement is the shiny one obviously.  The original is gummed up and needs to be cleaned before I try it again.  If I have to use the OEM replacement, what's the best way to paint it white?  I'm worried that if I paint it to match the car it might gum it up too.  Any suggestions?

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I just went through this with the Monte, lots of wd40 to clean it. Simulate latching with a screwdriver and more wd40. I had to fiddle around, latching and unlatching to get it to work reliably. In the end I hosed it with penetrating oil once after it was working and just from use it got better and better. Now it feels effortless to open the hood.

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I just went through this with the Monte, lots of wd40 to clean it. Simulate latching with a screwdriver and more wd40. I had to fiddle around, latching and unlatching to get it to work reliably. In the end I hosed it with penetrating oil once after it was working and just from use it got better and better. Now it feels effortless to open the hood.

It's funny that you say that because that's what my buddy and I were doing.  He took a screw driver to simulate the hood bar that's mounted on the underside of the hood and we figured out how it locked/worked. 

 

WD40 is the best to use then?  I was going to use some degreaser and try to work it into the hinge mechanisms but I'll try WD40 too.  Thanks!  What penetrating oil did you use?

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WD40 doesn't mess up paint normally, once it opened consistently I used PB Blaster. Q-tips and those little silver chemical type brushes are nice tools to have for that too.

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WD40 doesn't mess up paint normally, once it opened consistently I used PB Blaster. Q-tips and those little silver chemical type brushes are nice tools to have for that too.

I just bought some PB Blaster for my 87 GMC project so that will work great.  I have a lot of Q-tips, that's what I used to clean my DIS computer buttons that I'm working on.

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Since I got the hood open and I'm bored/excited, I thought I would put a old battery in it and get into the trunk since the trunk cylinder is bad.  The power trunk release works perfectly and also checked out to see what lights work/don't work.  Car has sat in my garage for 2 years so wasn't sure what would happen and what was in the trunk.  All the interior lights work but concerned that the digital dash isn't coming on when I go to accessory.  Battery is really low so maybe that has something to do with it?  All exterior lights work except for the right side license plate bulb, hopefully it's burned out.

 

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Fog lights don't work since they are not wired up yet.

 

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Is the black thing on the left the fuel pump access or something?  I thought you had to drop the tank to change the fuel pump.

 

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No signs of rust at all so far.  Oklahoma car since new, now it's in Iowa.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I just got the new OEM hood latch and hood release cable installed and it's better but not 100%.  The cable release pulls good and the lever goes back into the home position like it's suppose to but the hood doesn't pop up like it's suppose to.  I have to grab the hood and lift it up until it catches and then release the secondary lever and then it opens.  Why isn't the hood popping up like my parts car one?  The parts car one is actually missing some of the hood bumpers and it works great.  the 91 car has all the hood bumpers and everything is complete but the hood just sits there when the lever is pulled.  Any ideas?  I've also adjusted the whole latch assembly on the rad support up and down with no results.

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