Help broken hood cable ?

Which cable, the pull knob or the link between the catches?

The pull knob. Thanks.

You will need about a 3/16 diameter rod minimum with 2 right angle bends opposing each other like a straighten out "Z". Rod material is obtainable at building supply and hardware stores. One leg needs to be maybe an inch long the other long enough for your hand to use it easily. Make those bends 13" apart. Lay the long part parallel to the trailing edge of the hood and thread it in under the hood and turn it so as to be inline with the side of the hood about 5" in from that edge. As you turn the tool so your hand handle is vertical you will be trying to drop the short leg over the release cable. When you catch it pull back towards the dash firmly to release the first catch. If you succeed put a block of Styrofoam under the corner and go to the second catch.

It helps a great deal to have a similar Corvette to go by if you can arrange that.

Good luck.

So, Dad, where did you learn all this stuff? Years of hobbying or are you a Chevy mechanic?

Ed

On the farm to begin with then went to college for structural and tool design. On to manufacturing research and systems design. Learned to make do with what was at hand and which helped to get my patents. Ended my work as a field engineer trouble shooting world wide for I.R. The big thing is I just like to make things and make them work.

Painted my first car in 1949, a 29 Dodge 4 door with the spares, that's right, two, one in each front fender. Getting my '65 Mustang ready to go back together as we speak. Got slowed down a bit making a vault door 38X84 with 14 shot pins and electronic locking. Had to make a wheeled platform to move it around my shop and machined 62 parts some with 10-32 threads in 3/8 armor plate, hinge pins are 1.00 diameter 52-100 hardened steel riding in machined bronze bushings and washers. Not my normal project but was something interesting and fun to do with my son.

How's the "Z" running?

I had to fashion a rig to get my hood open several years ago when the cable snapped that connects the hood latches. I can't find it now but it was a thick piece of insulated cable, like the kind the power company burys in the ground. It can be bent to a slight 45 degrees and fed down under the trailing edge of the hood like Dad says (mirror & flashlight required). On my '75 there are plastic knock-out plugs in the wall foreword of the windshield wiper shafts that align with the trip tab on the latches. These plastic knock-out caps pop out with forward pressure and the thick cable can then press against the latch tab and unlock the hood. The length of heavy cable must be long enough so you can operate it from above the trailing edge of the hood and reach the latching mechanism under the hood.