1976 Ford F250 2WD 360 4 speed Truck that I am having a lot of trouble with the hood latch. I think the front of the radiator support that the hood latch bolts to is too far forward. This morning I go out to check the fluids under the hood and the hood latch would not move. I had to remove the grill inserts to access the bolts that hold the hood latch in place. Even after getting the hood up with the latch hanging on the hood I could not move the lever to release the latch. Found that the safety arm latch was bent backward and was preventing the hood latch release from moving. I'm not sure why the arm was bent but I know I opened it up last week to check under the hood. I was thinking I might put hood pins on in place of the latch so I would be able to get it open since there is some issue with the hood alignment. What do you think of this idea, have you seen this done on a F250 from this era? Would you do one pin in the middle or two pins one on each side? Thanks for all the help I have had.

 

Post a pic of your latch. You can adjust the position of them.

 

Here is the Latch, it was so hard to move I bent the opening lever 45 degrees out before I decided to remove it

Here is the latch mounting location

Here is the hood latch and the latch catches just at the bend in the bar

As I said the latch catches near the bend and I am guessing that while driving the hood bent back the "Safety Arm" so much that when I went to open it it was over the latch and wouldn't move at all. Maybe a new latch mechanism would solve this problem and not let the hood be stuck or I may have enough of an alignment issue that the original latch will not work properly now. Thanks for looking.

 

I also have been reading about problems with the hood latches coming open during driving on this model and was thinking that hood pins would secure the hood better maybe. What do you think about this issue? Thanks

 

I've got a box full of the latches if you want an oem piece.

 

I would take him up on the offer of a none bent one and then go at it patiently during the reinstall. Also adjust the hood where you want it BEFORE you install the latch.

Hood 101 per a compilation of FTE advice over the years. What condition are your 4 rubber hood bumpers? To get the back of the hood down to line up with the cowl, loosen the 2 very back bolts on the hinge flange where it bolts to the inner fender and then have some one push the hood up standing in front of the truck while you tighten them back down. Not a lot, might take a couple of movements to get it where you want it. Close the hood slow, DON'T SLAM IT, watch the back while it close's. Next, to get the gap the same all the way across you loosen the hood bolts on only the side you want to move, if your closing the gap, tap the back of the hinge arm with your ratchet handle and the hood will move on its own, if you want to widen the gap, loosen the bolts and pull up on the back of the hood and tap the hinge arm on the front side and the hood will slide forward, always close the hood slow after any adjustments to make sure its not gonna hit any where.

To tighten the front of the hood, their are 2 bolts on the hood latch that are slotted, you can see the slots if you look, loosen them and tap the latch down, if you go to much the hood wont latch, bring it back up.

AND MORE...Often the hood sits up above the cowl. To fix this, adjust the hinge where it mounts to the inner fender. Up at the front, and down at the rear. Reverse procedure to raise the rear of the hood. The hinges should be lubed with a good lubricant to operate properly or your alignment wont work no matter how long you play with it. You should be able to almost throw the hood open with the flick of a finger. Get it set right and amaze your FTE friends.

Set everything in the middle, hood hinge to inner fender bolts and the hood bracket bolts. I like to remove the latch at first so I can easily swing the hood open and closed. If the rear of the hood is sticking up when it is closed you actually adjust the hood to open MORE. Either by lifting the front of the bracket or lowering the rear of the bracket. Sometimes both in combination. The center bolt acts as a pivot. Once that is done, and it can take a while to get everything nice and the gaps decent you then set the latch height. If the hood is maxed out forward and is still interfering with the cowl you'll then need to loosen the inner fender to firewall horn bolts, inner fender bolt and radiator core support and move everything forward.

If you're hood is high compared to the cowl loosen the middle bolt and the rear bolt, then open the hood and it will push (rotate) the hinge down and towards the cowl. Look for the clean marks that the bolt head will leave behind for reference.

 

Thanks for info. I am going to remove the hood and start over after getting the hood hinge bolts to tighten up and getting all the other parts properly adjusted. This is going to take some time to do since I only work on it early morning before it reaches 100 in the shade.

 

I don't see any evidence of lubrication on the latch? Does it move freely? Have you tested the latch without the hood - with latch bolted in place use a screw driver to close it, then release with handle? Have you lubricated the hood hinges as well to make "popping the hood" easier? The spring on the hood will wear out over time, so it won't pop or push the hood up, sometimes replacement is needed.

 

I did check the latch after straightening the safety arm and it is stiff but does work good. I will replace the hood spring since it is bent out of shape but first I need to get the bolts fixed on the hinges that are loose. Thanks for mentioning it.