rws <rwsam2002@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Jon,
> Thank you for the AVIs, JPGs and your supreme effort.
Glad to be of assistance. I had a rare few minutes to spare
between appointments and it was a fun diversion. :-)
> 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.
For sure. :-)
> 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).
Your '94 is a GenII also. ('91-96 is GenII) It should use the
exact same latch, and I suspect the GenI uses the same latch as well,
although I am too lazy to walk outside and check my '90 Dak at the
moment. :-)
That large rivet that you saw is actually the hinge for the latch.
If you look carefully, you will see that the rivet is attached to a
small bit of metal that runs alongside the tube (this is the latch).
There is a slot in that tube that the latch fits into. The back of
the latch is hinged by that rivet, the middle goes through the slot in
the tube, and the front of the latch has a spring attached to it which
runs towards the passenger side of the truck. That spring holds the
latch into the tube so that the hood stays latched. The cable release
hooks to the same spot as where the spring attaches, just to the front
of that tube, but it pulls towards the driver's side of the truck.
What I'm doing when I put the hook tool I made up there is to slip
it on the passenger side of the latch and pull the front of the latch
towards the driver side of the truck.
I made a quick drawing, maybe this will help:
jon@dakota-truck.net/gen2hoodlatch/Gen2HoodLatchD.jpg">http://www.dakota-truck.net/ATTACHMENTS/jon@dakota-truck.net/gen2hoodlatch/Gen2HoodLatchD.jpg
My apologies for the crudeness, but I have no artistic talent and
I literally spent 20 seconds to draw it. ;-) That drawing is a top
view of the latch, as if you were standing in front of the truck and
looking down. The bottom of the paper would be the front of the truck
and the top of the paper would be towards the rear of the truck. As
you can see, all you're doing with the hook tool is simply moving that
metal latch out of the way, which allows the hood to pop open.
You can get the tool into position by simply putting it up against
the front of that tube, raising it up until it hits the bottom of the
latch, then while holding it against the bottom of the latch, move it
towards the passenger side of the truck, while continuing the upwards
pressure. When you feel it snap upwards slightly, you are on the
passenger side of the latch and now you can use your left hand to push
up on the tool with a good amount of force so that the tool doesn't
slip off the latch, then pull towards the driver's side with your
right hand, and that should do the trick.
Your '94 should be exactly the same - I wouldn't give up just yet.
:-) If all else fails, take a road trip and I'll pop 'er open for you
now that I've got all of this experience. ;-)
If you need clarification on any of the above or if I can be of
any further assistance, please let me know.
--
-Jon-
.- Jon Steiger -- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com -.
| '96 Kolb Firefly, '96 Suzuki Intruder, Miscellaneous Mopars |
`-------------------------------- http://www.jonsteiger.com --'
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