#$%&@* Hood Latch...

Unknown
Unknown
edited November -1 in HUDSON
I finally got my '49 home today to mess with and thought I'd hit the plugs with some PB Blaster before I came in for the night. Now I popped the hood when I picked it up to make sure it was out of gear, and it opened right up for me. I shut it and it didn't quite catch, I had to shut it a couple more times tight. So I get home and try to unlatch it again and nothing. I can pull the handle about an inch, maybe less than that, and nothing seems to pop. It's been sprayed with PB blaster as much as I can get to it under there, and I can see where someone else sprayed it too.



Is the hood pin supposed to be centered in the opening? I can see the bottom of it but it's to the back and to the right a little. I see no obvious way to take the latch apart with the hood closed. All I can think of is to have someone else push down on it while I pull the handle to see if that will do the trick.



On the bright side, the clock works and is keeping good time now that I wound it up.



If I ever do get to the plugs, can I expect a lot of trouble given this has the aluminum head on the 262? Should I just soak them down in PB Blaster or ATF and forget them for a while?



One other dumb question - having read the clutches are prone to sticking in these, how does one tell if it's stuck? Get under there for a visual? The pedal seems to work fine, and it shifts in and out of gear, although it seems a little stiff that could just as easily be stiff linkage.





Came with a whole pile of probably useless gaskets in the trunk for late 50's cars - not a single Hudson piece in the bunch.

Comments

  • Jon B
    Jon B Administrator
    I'd guess that if you can shift it into neutral and then roll the car, your clutch isn't sticking. Of course you want to be sure you put some new clutch compound in it, just to be sure it's not dry. And get underneath and lube all the shift linkage points between the lever and the transmission, as well.



    The thought of having a friend lean on the hood when you pull the lever, is a good one. Possibly something is misaligned so that there is undue tension on the latch when it's shut. I have an earlier Hudson, but it seems to me that all these postwar cars have the same sort of latch setup: there is a stud sticking down from the hood with a lower end that looks kind of like a Christmas tree light bulb, with a slot in it. You can turn this and adjust it up or down, in order to have a tighter or looser fit in the latch mechanism. It's not so much a matter of lubrication, as it is of up / down adjustment.
  • Hudson Grandpa
    Hudson Grandpa Expert Adviser
    I am not an expert, but I have been fooling with my hood latch, and even got a new one to replacethe old one.. Your tree light bulb with the slot in it must be exactly in the middle when it closes. To far up in the coil and it won't latch, too far down and it may lock the hood. There is a lever next to the hole, as you are looking down at it would be to the right. Not the one on top which is attached to the cable that you pull from inside. If you can find that little lever, I do it by feel now instead of looking up, with a long screwdriver I put the end on it, and bash it with my right hand and that released the hood to the point that you can release it the rest of the way with your right hand on the big lever that sticks up vertically. When you get it popped, you can see that in the hole when the Xmas tree bulb goes into the hole it is captured by that little lip. It is on a spring, and is very strong. That is why everything must be centered and in line. Pulling on the cable release inside the car, for me, is useless. It just doesn't move that lever far enough to pop the bulb out of the hole....If you can get the scewdrive on that little lip, it will release also.



    Have fun..
  • SamJ
    SamJ Senior Contributor
    Jon B wrote:
    It's not so much a matter of lubrication, as it is of up / down adjustment.



    At my age, Jon, I find it's both...:cool:
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    When I look under, I see the cable go in on the left, the center hole, and there is a tiny lever with a spring on it on the right behind the second latch lever. That latch is what I need to move - towards the center, so it compresses the spring? It's rough getting in there because the only access is through the top of the grille, I've been afraid to try to whack on anything because I'm afraid of slipping and putting a dent in the stainless.



    I may try and turn the bulb of the catch a little and see if I can get some more play that way.



    Thanks for the tips -
  • Jon B
    Jon B Administrator
    I encountered this same problem a couple years ago, with a friend's bullet-nose Studebaker. Only in his case, he pulled the hood release knob and the whole knob and cable pulled out of the housing without releasing the hood!



    We ended up unscrewing the 'shark's mouth' of the grille, then (from within) the 'spinner', so we had full access to the area ahead of the radiator. Then we reached up and -- from underneath the latch -- snagged a small part of that lever, which hung down through the sheet metal. By use of various tools we were able to force the lever over, releasing the 'Christmas tree light', and up went the hood.



    Wish I'd known this technique 35 years earlier, when exactly the same misfortune befell me and my '50 Studebaker. I ended up using a crowbar to pry the hood open (thus denting my precious spinner). But I was younger and dumber (if you can believe that!) in those days.
  • hudsonguy
    hudsonguy Senior Contributor
    Assuming you can get your hood open eventually, that might be a good time to take one of Bill Albright's suggestions. That is to install a 'second' hood release mechanism that can be accessed from the drivers side headlight area. It can be as simple as a piece of coat hanger, or as elaborate as you want to make it. (I used a piece of bent up brake line tubing, etc.) I put the 'pull handle' in an area where you have to know it's there, in other words, you can't tell when looking at the front of the car. Having this second lever option, I end up using it more than I do the original cable inside the car.
  • bent metal
    bent metal Senior Contributor
    SamJ wrote:
    At my age, Jon, I find it's both...:cool:



    Ha ha:D Keep um' coming Sam! That's funny:)
This discussion has been closed.

Categories

In this Discussion