Hood latch sticks

Mike Hausner · #1 (**permalink**) 03-26-2003, 10:07 AM

Mounted hood to rad hoop & VW latch mechinism at firewall to fabricate direct release for hood latch (I don't like the cable release). With the hood mounted, the hinge bkts at the rad hoop are all the way to the front - no more adjustment. The latch pin on the hood hits the latch off center toward the rear. The latch has stuck several times causing me to disassemble the latch mounting box from the firewall. Since the body wasn't on this wasn't too difficult - just a painin the butt. Previous to this I noticed that the flange on the top of the firewall was tilted forward & the latch box didn't fit. To fix this I cut 80% through at the corner & bent the flange so it was almost 90 degrees to the "shelf" and re-glassed it.
THE QUESTIONS:
1. Are the hood "P" bkts supposed to be biased all the way forward?
2. Also noticed the tabs on the rad hoop are not centered. Is this normal?
3. Do I need to bend the flange at the top of the firewall back more?
4. SHOULD I ABANDON THE VW LATCH IN FAVOR OF THE HANDLE TYPE (like Finish Line sels)?

dscott · #2 (**permalink**) 03-26-2003, 10:17 AM

Mike, the brackets on the raditor support don't need to be centered since the rod which holds the hinge can be moved side to side. I use the scribe marks on the firewall as a reference. I set the latch box on the firewall and space it up about 3/8" from the bottom. You want to make sure the box is sitting at an angle to match the angle of the hood pin. I normally have to elongate the holes in the hood pin so it can be moved whatever direction I need.

I've never tried this without the body so it will be hard to match everything up since you don't know how the hood will sit with the body on.
Don

Double Venom · #3 (**permalink**) 03-26-2003, 04:03 PM

Mike,
Yup. What Don said. The latch box is NOT supposed to sit flat! It's angeled from the back downward to the front.

If your motor isn't installed, mount the body, mount and adjust the hood with the strike in place, then simply crawl inside the engine compartment and latch the box to the striker. Now mount the box and it will be perfect!

If you do have the motor in place already, then it's simply trial, error, and fit!

DV..Practice is over!

Mike Hausner · #4 (**permalink**) 03-26-2003, 08:00 PM

Thanks for the reply Don & Ed. I mounted the hood so I could mount & install the new rad and SPAL fan and thought I could test the hood latch too. I have a lever that I can reach under the dash that acts directly on the VW latch to release the hood. I'll slot the latch pin mount on the hood as you suggested. Thanks for your help.....MH