On Sat, 10 Oct 2009, rws wrote:
> Been a while.
>
> On my '94 Dakota the hood can't be opened because I believe the hood
> release cable is disconnected from the primary latch that releases
> the sprung-pin. Cable just moves freely.
>
> When I look under and through the grill all I can see is the hood
> safety latch and the bottom of the spring loaded pin coming through
> the receiver hole. I can't see the cable or primary latch. I think
> they are sandwiched inside a shallow cavity where the cable feeds
> through.
>
> Any suggestion on how I would get this opened? I'm pulling my hair
> on why it was designed like this, if a cable breaks - what's the
> remedy?
Ron,
The cable does indeed run inside the radiator support at the top
the the grill. The cable itself is only accessible between the
firewall and the hole where it goes inside the radiator support near
the battery.
At first I thought that you were screwed, but my '96 is parked
right outside so I popped the hood, pulled the latch out and
discovered that its pretty easy to pop the hood. (This isn't such a
good thing from a security standpoint, but its good for folks with
broken cables.) :-)
The photos referenced below can be seen at:
jon@dakota-truck.net/gen2hoodlatch">jon@dakota-truck.net/gen2hoodlatch">http://www.dakota-truck.net/ATTACHMENTS/jon@dakota-truck.net/gen2hoodlatch
First, grab a piece of 1/4" rod, or something similar, a couple of
feet long, and put a 90 degree bend on one end. A wire coat hanger
might work too, depends on how stiff your latch is. Take a look under
the hood. If you are kneeling in front of the truck, look through the
opening just to the right of the center of the grill (under the D and
G). You will see something like is shown in Gen2HoodLatchA.jpg.
My hood latch is painted orange. If you look just to the left of
the orange latch, you will see what looks like a tube. The pin
portion of the hood latch comes down through that tube (you can see
the end of it in the pic). Take the hook tool, feed it through the
hole in the grill under the "E" and put the hook part pointed up in
front of that tube. (Gen2HoodLatchB.jpg shows the tool moving towards
the tube.) Move the tool up until it hits the underside of the latch,
then while holding it up against the latch, move it towards the
passenger side of the vehicle, you will be able to feel it slip off
the end of the latch and move up a little bit more.
(Gen2HoodLatchC.jpg shows the tool in position.) At that point, use
your left hand to maintain upwards pressure on the tool while pulling
towards the driver's side of the truck with your right hand. That
will pop the latch.
Just to prove it can be done, there are a couple of videos in that
directory, of me popping the hood from a couple of different angles.
(Gen2HoodLatchA.avi and Gen2HoodLatchB.avi)
I hope that helps! Actually, I'd like to thank you for the
question, since I'm sure my cable will break someday, and now I know
what to do when it does. Its sure a lot easier to reverse engineer a
solution on a working vehicle where you can access the latch mechanism
first. :-)
Good luck!
--
-Jon-
=================================================================
Jon,
Thank you for the AVIs, JPGs and your supreme effort.
I was told by others my only solution was to cut a hole in the hood where the latch pin is. Not the way I want to solve this.
I see exactly where you inserted the pull rod in pictures B and C and will try to duplicate my effort.
It seems that your truck is different, that it is a 2nd gen and they may have changed the design to expose a stub to pull on to release the hood latch. I used dental mirrors and a flashlight to look up into the underside of the latch mechanism and I didn't see anything to pull on that was near the hood pin. Only feature I saw was a head of a large rivet adjacent the pin, that was against the sheet metal hole that allows the pin to peek through. I think the latch and cable is above the sheet metal panel (or bottom of the plenum).
I'll call or go to the Dodge dealership to see if there was a different p/n for the '94 vs. '96 latch mechanism.
I'll also ask them if they ever had to deal with a broken cable in a 1st gen Dakota.
Glad to hear that you discovered a solution before the problem. If it ever happens, you'll be much quicker at the fix.
In my case, I need to get the hood open so I can get the truck smog checked, which is weeks past due.
Ron
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