hood latch cable broke. how do i open hood ? HELP!
Go under the dash in the center behind the heater there should be a soft plug. Push it out and the hood latch will be right there. The other way is to put the car in the air and go in under the inner fender well with a long rod and hit the release lever. Both methods require being a contortionist and having the patience of Job!
Tanks! Wish me luck.
Billylongroof
Same thing happened to me. I could never find the under dash access. Take right wheel off and use the long rod approach. My car has supercharger so the air cleaner is on the left blocking the release. I have other 57s so I could get the rod bent just right to clear valve cover. Takes a little doing and a lot of four letter words.
My hood latch has always required slightly less force than could be applied by placing both feet on the dash to release it. while messing around with the latch with no cable attached i found that it took almost no pressure on the lever to release. its that piece of junk wire release cable that takes all the force to open the hood. I had an easy slide heater control valve cable that I wasn't using so I replaced the stock cable with that and the hood will open with just two fingers on a small knob that i attached to the cable. They are available from Old Air Products.
There is a lot of truth about those old cables getting stuck. My trick is that I soak them in a bucket of drain oil for a few days. After they free up, I let let them drip dry for another few days. It's not a good repair if you are in a hurry but this method does work.
A kerosene soak works well too....and faster.
This also works on e-brake cables.
Some speedo cable lube upon reassembly is good.
Ron.