Broken Hood Release cable, hood stuck!!!

[73vettecollector]

OK guys and gals. I have a broken hood release cable. Now how the heck can I get my hood up? This is killing me...

Shack

[red70vette]

What year car?

I had the same problem on my 70 and I removed the eggcrate grille and reached up and manually released the hood. It can also be reached from underneath with a long screwdriver or breaker bar. There is a way to reach it from the wiper cowl with a screw driver but you need to check the archives for information.

[jdp6000]

There is an access panel in the area of the wipers. Remove it to access the latch...thats what its meant for.

Jim

[RMS73]

Go to the MidAmerica Website. In the technical article section it show where the access points are.

Roger

[Mr. Chuck]

If your 82 is the same as the 81, this may help: Had same problem with my 81, got lucky took wire shirt hanger, using it full length, formed a loop handle on one end and a small radius hook on the other end. My hood did released only on the driver side, lifted up on the hood (free end) used a soft wedge to hold it open. Used home made hook to snag the right side release cable to opened the hood. Got lucky that driver side released normally and very lucky that I snaged the far release cable right off and pulling it released right side of the hood. One hint; on getting the new cable adjusted correctly before trying it with the hood closed. Use a screw drive or some other tool to activate both hood latches and then you can make cable tension adjustments until both latches open together. Then you have better results in getting hood to release on the first try. One note in attaching the cross over cable, is not to over tighten the mount tab (molded on to the cable assy) screw so it doesn't crack and you end up with another hood release problem.

[Tritium007]

That is precisely the problem I have right now. I have been able to get my hand under the driver's side and snag the crossover cable with my finger and release the other side. I found the molded tab broken off the cable. Problem is the plastic anchors in the distributor cover pulled out when I did this requiring the crossover cable to be pulled a great deal to release. The driver's end of the crossover cable has a rather large flat piece of metal attached with several holes in it. I assume the holes are used to get the correct adjustment based on the age/length of the cable. What is the correct fastener for that part of the assembly. It seems that I have a small stud and cotter pin in there now and it doesn't look right. The manuals I ordered have shipped but I haven't recieved them yet.

Mike

[Mr. Chuck]

My use of the wire hanger allowed me to grab the cross over cable at the right hand latch, so pulling the cable didn't stress the anchors on the distributor cover. Done is done! I found a local Southern Cal source called Corvette Mike where I purchased a new cross over cable. Check their web site to see if they also have the anchors. You are correct, the rather large flat piece of metal attached is for adjustment of the cable tension by moving the stud / cotter pin around. The prime reason for manually closing the latches on each side & trying various positions of stud / plate hole to get both latches to open at the same time before you actually close the hood. I also found the cable had sawed through the cross over cable metal guide sleeve. The damaged sleeve failed to keeps the cable in place and properly transfer the pulling force to the right side hood release assy.