Hood latch/cable broke-->What now?

I know this sounds stupid ...but... the hood latch on my '97 Sierra began to act up... I had a friend push down on the hood (relieving pressure) as I pulled the interior hood release lever... this worked... then a good spray of silicone on the latch and it has been fine (6 months now)

my .02

==== Yes or just smack it with your hand while pulling on the release. Usually if it is the cable, it will break or fray at the release handle. If so, you can just grab whats left of the cable under the dash with vise grips to open it. Then replace and give the latch a good lubing.

Doc,

I had the same problem on my '78 blazer. I pulled the cable to pop the hood and 6 feet of cable came out from under the dash. What I had to do was get a big flathead screwdriver and pry up on the hood. This gave me enough room to be able to get longest extension I could find with a 9/16 (IIRC) socket and remove the 2 bolts that held the latch. Once the bolts were removed I was able to life the hood with latch still attached. I mangled the hood pretty good prying on it, but it was the only way I could get it open.

Word of wisdom, fix it right the first time. Mine was so rigged that I eventually lined up the latch as high as it would go so next time I couldn't get the hood open, I had easy access to the latch bolts.

G/L

Derek

Hi!

Doc, I can second (or third, or maybe even fourth) what some other posters said...it may not have broken per se. (Now, don't take that as insulting, especially if you see a handle in your hand or something obvious like that...)

My dad's '94 likes to pull this stunt...pull the hood latch and nothing happens at all. The "puller" feels totally disconnected...but go out and give the hood a good slap and it will pop up. It's done this since close to day 1 and only got worse after a small episode with a deer that sprung the hood just ever so slightly.

Worth a shot. If that isn't the case, you should be able to grab the hood release cable somewhere and pull it with a pliers or something. This might involve following it out of the cab to see if you can cut into it and get at some wire that way...

William The Guesser

If the cable isn't broke having someone push down on the hood while you pull the handle will sometimes work.

I have wondered what to do if the cable breaks. On my trucks I notice I can get at the hinge bolts pretty easy. It those were removed I was wondering if there would then be enough play on the latch such at you could lift the hood enough to get at the latch.

Another alternative would be a very long thin box wrench to get at the latch bolts. One of those stamped out of a flat piece of steel.

hi doc, im sure u got the hood popped by now. i ran into a similiar situation when i pulled the hood release and the cable snapped. what to do? I took a slot head driver andwas able to move the latch. this was on a 92 blazer.

how did u do?

I had a similar problem- luckily the cable was still in the passenger's compartment and I was able to just grabit with visegrips.

In my line of work we fall back to the good old clothes hanger if the cable is broke, which means you will have to buy a new cable anyway, most of the time the cable is broke at the handle or someplace in between, bend the clothes hanger to form a small hook to grab the cable and cover most of the time it will pull open.

If the cable is broke at the latch use the clothes hanger to grab the latch and open.

Works for us but it did take a while to learn how to do it