2018 Dutchstar Hood Latch

[stv_szy]

I have searched the forum to see if this has been posted. Hopefully this is not a repeat. There are several posts on adjusting the latch cable to open the hood but here is a a new one.

I had my hood release cable working perfectly and recently went to refill the washer fluid. Opened the electrical bay, pulled the cable and I could here the mechanical sounds in the latch but it would not release. Must be the way I am pulling the release so pull it again. Nope, and again, nope. OK, pull really hard, nope. Fortunately my tall stature fitted me with long arms so I can crawl under the front of the passenger side, reach up over the front beam and push the latch open by hand.

I discovered the 2 bolts holding the latch mechanism to the front hood had worked their way loose and the latch itself was barely attached. The release cable basically was just moving the whole mechanism instead of opening the latch. There is no lock washers on the fasteners either. The bolts simply rattled loose during our travels similar to all the other 1000's of fasteners aboard. I was lucky to catch this before the bolts completely fell out.

My solution to avoid this was to place some blue thread locker on the bolt threads and retighten. Hopefully this cures the problem unless someone has a better idea.

Just thought I would post this for others to check and watch.

[10 fan]

When I raised the generator exhaust last year I saw the same thing and added lock washers and blue locktite.

[Greenbarn1]

The problem is the two bolts holding mechanism are bolted thru fiberglass hood!! I added a piece of stainless on the outside ( bottom) of hood to add integrity to bolts holding latch. Carl 2014 dutchstar 4364