So I changed the oil, started it up, all good, sun is low in the sky ahhh time for an evening cruise.
53 Merc M100, close the hood NEVER slammed! Had a nice ride time to put her away....
Wont start in the drive way, go to open the hood and neither hood latch is working?????? how the hell do I open the hood!!!!

ANY HELP APPRECIATED!!!

 

Put flat bar under hood pry up while operating latch?

 

Maybe try to push down on the hood nose while operating the latch. Does it feel like the hood latch is opening all the way?.

 

I appreciate the "fix" advice, it didn't budge! hood it tightly fixed. I looked all around it hasn't shifted or anything, latches are tight as usual. I'm just stumped !

 

Unfortunately the hood is fixed in place nothing seems outa place or loose?!!! and you cant get your head up there to have a look. Both latches seem fine as well.

 

Try pushing backwards on the front of the hood while releasing the lever. (Don't dent your hood!)

 

You might also try pushing down on both sides of the hood at the cowl. If it's up the least bit it will push the hood forward.

 

My hood was closed too hard the last time it was at my mechanics. Pushing, pulling, prying with screwdriver didn't do any good. In the end they said they pretty much ended up pulling the grille out to get to it. It has a center grille support which obstructed prying with a screwdriver, and the top bolt of that support was hard to get to with the hood down, making it hard to remove the support to clear the area for prying. I hope you have better luck.

 

I am not sure how your latch works, but the same thing happened on my 50. The floating alignment/guide pin (with the large spring around it) that comes out of the cowl that the hood latch goes in moved slightly to the side as I closed it, going past the actual latch lever and hooked the arrow-shaped top of the pin in the latch guide hole. Basically I had to work a large flat bladed screwdriver in and push the large guide pin to the side, which allowed it to move and release.

 

OH!!!
well I have my work cut out for me then. As I prev posted the hood is tight, no play anywhere, so its gotta be grabbing on something somewhere, I will give it a shot may take a while, but thx. I believe, well I've been told other then the few lights odds and sods my merc m100 is directly swappable in parts to the F100 so I hope this is the issue.
Again THX!

 

Appreciate the insight, I will have a big look around and see whats what.
Im really new to the old scene, I love it but its very frustrating some times!!!!

 

When mine did the same thing (I posted earlier), it was jammed hard too - no movement anywhere. I tried a lot of shaking/pulling/etc. After an hour of head scratching and shaking, I found the overtravel problem (luckily my 50 has the two large holes in the front of the hood for access. Good luck.