Hood won’t open and related fix

[Breezy2006]

I recently discovered that one of the two bolts that holds my hood latch assembly on a 17 Dutch Star had dropped to the floor of the garage so I replaced the bolt and put Locktite on both. However I neglected to rehook the release cable such that on a recently completed trip, I was unable to open the hood. It happens, you fix one thing and then cause another issue.

The pull handle operated freely during this time period.

Here is the fix.


Below is a picture of the lever (after I reconnected the cable) it needs to be pulled the opposite of the spring, so elongating the spring.

Air up the coach, with a strong light and a coat hanger which has been modified to a long J, crawl under the coach (I used a creeper) with your head towards the driver side of the coach and hook the lever and pull it towards the driver side of the coach. The hood should release so you can assess the problem and fix it. Pretty easy once you illuminate the lever.

Hope this helps someone else.

[GuyG]

Great information. Thanks for posting.

[Golfer Guy]

Breezy, I had a similar issue with my generator slide release latch. Couldn't get it to unleash the generator so I just removed the whole mechanisim all nearly 8' of cable that twisted and turned to reach the back of the generator from under the hood. Drilled a small hole in the driver side run bay and slipped a cord through the hole to the generator release latchand connected it. About 2' max from the run bay. You have to open the run bay to pull the hood latch anyway so just pull the cord and zippo out pops the generator. Ridiculously easy MOD. I do need to put a small sleeve through the hole and seal it up so there is no water intrusion.