Front hood latch

push down harder or adjust the male part..mine had a flat slot for screwdriver to turn

Thanks. I push excessively hard but doesn’t help all the time. Shouldn’t have to push that hard. I will adjust male stylus.

To lengths the, ahem. male bit you use an crescent wrench to loosen the lock nut at the base.  Then as Bob said, turn it out (counterclockwise) a leetle bit (maybe one turn max) to extend it.  Then, using the screwdriver to hold the post in position, tighten the lock nut.  Check to see if that works.  On some latches you can extend it too far and then the latch won't release.

Make sure that the post has enough thread holding is securely in the mount or you could have a potential case of the hood opening while you go down the road.  Hopefully your safety latch would catch it, but better safe than sorry.

Thanks Lane. Yes I don’t want to have it get locked in place. I’m thinking it’s a fraction off from being spot on.

You can slip a wrench between the spring to access the 13mm nut, crack that loose and turn the threaded pin 1/4 counterclockwise, retighten the nut and check, repeat as needed. You want to hear that "click "

I have concern about my hood popping open when I have the bra on.  It has a part that slips over the end of the hood.  I was never sure it was latching securely with the bra.

My bra is the same one Lane had on his Speedster.

I never thought about adjusting the male part. I am glad I saw it here.

You can always add leather hood straps for an extra measure of security.

I wouldn't be able to fasten them with the bra in place.

@Michael McKelvey

On your car, wouldn’t that be called a “Bro”?

Thanks all for your input.
barely tweaked male stylus as suggested and closed with a “click”.
took it out for a run and stayed shut! Also the gaps between the hood and body look right to my eye now. The hood just was not seated correctly into latch. And best part….it opened when I pulled on release. 😎🇺🇸

Speaking of pulling on the release, I have to pull really hard to release the engine compartment lid.

Has anyone tried lubricating these things?

@Michael McKelvey posted:

Speaking of pulling on the release, I have to pull really hard to release the engine compartment lid.

Has anyone tried lubricating these things?

Yes. It’s a PITA because it’s mostly horizontal. The best way to do it is remove it, hang it vertical, and lube it that way. Alternatively. You can spray a little Tri-Flow in the end every time you think about it.
That’s what I’ve been doing for my Spyder frunk and it gets a little easier over time (I’m afraid I’ll never get the adjustment right if I remove it to do it right)

Don’t forget the latch mechanisms themselves. I use grease on those.  Wurth SIG 3000 to be specific.

@Michael McKelvey another way to lube a cable inside a housing is to spray a light lubricant into the end of the housing and then use compressed air to force the lube thru the housing.

Thank you @dlearl476 and @James for your suggestions.

@Michael McKelvey it might not be that your latch or latch cable need to be lubed (although it certainly would never hurt).

It might be that the cover’s latch pin is positioned just a trifle too high so that the cover has to compress the rubber buttons that hold it off of the body (and they are tough to compress!).  If you don’t have the buttons and opted for some sort of weatherstripping instead, it might be too thick and has to be compressed enough for the latch to fully engage the cover pin.

Then, with the cover latched and under compression, the latch itself is really tight against the cover pin and that makes it hard to disengage with the pull-cable, no matter how much you lube it.

If this is so, having someone push down hard on the back end of the cover in the middle, right above the latch, while you pull the release cable should make it work easier.

Food for thought…….   Like maybe it’s an anti-theft feature?

Maybe I will try having someone push down while I pull the cable.  I did have to move the pin a bit when I changed the latch to a Fiat latch with a spring to pop the lid up.

I don't have buttons.  I have hollow bulb weatherstripping.

I used to have a similar weatherstripping all around the engine cover opening and never had any issues with cooling, but then a whole bunch of people convinced me, with a whole bunch of data, complete with 8” X 10” color glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one, not to mention data from a host of manometers placed all over the car, each one telling us which way the wind was blowing at various “road speeds” and such….  

Well, all those people and all that data convinced me to remove all that weatherstripping, even though I had meticulously color-matched it as best I could to the body color to give the onlooker a feeling of “Color-Zen” or even a one-ness with the Universe, and replace it with those little, gray rubber buttons so highly recommended by all of those aforementioned people.  

Those little gray buttons really stand out against the white of the car and you know what else?

I haven’t noticed any change at all in the cooling of the engine.

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On my Kirk-era VS, it's always the latch itself that gums up, not the cable.

There are a lot of little crudely stamped and unfinished bits to it that slide across each other without benefit of bushings or bearings, so Tri-Flow must do the work of proper engineering.

Look it over carefully under good light and you'll discover what needs doing. The little plates should pivot, slide, latch, and release easily — with little resistance. If they don't, the cable has to do too much work and eventually tires of that.

More critical to keep lubed than the frunk (which you can get to from under the car if it jams).

Smart people (not me) rig a second cable, accessible from some clever, hidden place that will activate the latch should the primary cable fail. I will probably do that, too, the day after mine fails and I have to rip out half the tins.

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Now I am thinking that the effort needed to pull the cable may be that required to overcome the spring that pops the lid up.

I still will lube things.

If those cover-lifter springs are pretty robust, that may be your problem - They could be applying enough tension on the latch to make Mitch’s slippy-slidey bits not want to slippy or slidey easily.

Even with those springs, though, pushing down on the cover above the latch while pulling on the release knob should make it unlatch easier.

@Dennis Connaughton  Something that must be done on most pull cables, is after you open up the hood, make sure you push the BUTTON in as far as it goes this will make sure that the latch closes and you will have the double lock work once you push down to close the hood.

If I do not do that then the hood will not latch. !  Could this be your problem?

I also had this issue with the rear lid.

Luckily the trunk did not open up at speed

I put an extra spring on my rear lid because had to keep pushing the knob back in. Works great now. I need to put one on the frunk also, along with safety cable on both. But, like  Sacto Mitch, I think I’ll wait till the day after they fail. I’ll be in a better mood.