Hey fellas,

My bonnet has jammed itself closed somehow on my '74... Has this happened to anyone else and do any of you know how to pry it open again?? It isn't the spring jamming up, I've had that previously. This time the lever won't even pop it open to the first click, it's somehow completely jammed shut

Help before I get the sabre saw and make a mess of my nice new radiator support panel!!

Cheers,
Jais

PS will also post this into the 73-79 series forum

 

I had a similar problem with an old statesman I had , on that I was able to reach up from underneath and managed to hook the bonnet release cable and yanked the hell out of it from underneath which gave more travel than just pulling the bonnet release catch from inside the cabin, coupled with a good dose of WD40 from underneath in the general direction and a mate pushing up and down on the bonnet. A new release cable was cheaper than a grinder thru the bonnet. dunno if it will work with the FFFy

 

so it's been a while since I've logged in haha... I got the bonnet open after moving house by pulling the front completely off it and unbolting the bonnet latch. It was just completely jammed up and full of congealed gunk.......... degreased it, bashed it around with a hammer a bit to free up any loose dirt and crap, cleaned it up a bit and got some lube in there and put it all back together. all appears to be sweet there.....

New problem.

Adjusted the height of the latch to get the bonnet gap sweet at the front, but it doesn't seem to matter if I adjust the bonnet hinges up or down, there's a monster gap at the rear. The temporary fix has been to lift the front as well so the gap is even, but the whole thing has to drop. I've already replaced the hinges with another set that were good when they came off the old XLT I wrecked (found one side was completely split and busted so replaced both). I'm not home so I can't get a pic to show what I mean but has anyone had the same thing happen to theirs?? If I push down on the bonnet then it goes down to where it should but then it lifts back up again..... it officially has me stumped

grrrrrr

 

Lining up a hood (bonnet) is why a lot of guys make scribe marks around the hinge mounts before removing one - but in your case that doesn't seem to be helpful.

Has this truck ever had any wreck damage?

If it fits in front, it seems to me the rear gap should fit unless there is a mismatch in the hood size.

Also be sure to lubricate the hinge points if this is a truck with spring hinges.

My father had a 1958 Oldsmobile that got quite a gap before I realised it wasn't closing right because of resistance in the hinges themselves. It left the back edges raised up about ten or twenty centimeters so that the back of the hood (bonnet once again) had to be pushed down on separately.
*By that time, the rear of the bonnet where the hinges bolted up was beginning to develop a crease in front of the hinges from having to use too much force against poorly lubricated or rusted and stuck hinges

*Once I figured that out, I lubed it (there were about sixteen hinge points) with spray-in white lithium grease, since it never breaks down again. I worked it up and down until it operated smoothly, and went away to put the can back in the garage...

My fathers usual method for closing the hood was to pull down on it strongly, and then get on top of it and shove down with everything that he had.

My Pop nearly killed himself by slamming the damned thing on his own head since I hadn't the chance to tell him what I had done.

'Twasn't the last time I was cursed by my own Dad.


If you look through this link for the 1958 models, you can imagine how much weight he clocked himself on the head with:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldsmobile_88
The damned thing wasn't light....

But he was used to it being stuck and having to be forced down.

*It worked very smoothly that time!