Hood Latch Repair

[Guest Rmuskat]

Can someone tell me how to change the spring in my hood latch?

As can be seen in the attached photos, I have separated the hook from the latch body. However the shaft that goes through the spring has an edge on it that stops the spring from rising and the bottom of the shaft goes through a small hole in the body cylinder.

Thanks for the help.

Richard

[Guest stude8]

Push the cylinder shape body as far down as you can toward the mounting bracket and you will expose a "C" ring clip that confines the coil spring on the shaft inside. Pull it off with a plier and the spring and cylinder will come free from the base plate. Careful, the spring if it isn't broken can have a lot of tension to deal with. Stude8

[Guest Rmuskat]

Stude8, thanks, but my latch does not have a c ring clip. The shaft is turned over like one does for a metal tube. The shaft is also not long enough to extend past the top of the casing.

Is there any other suggestion.

Thanks.

[nickelroadster]

Sometimes the shaft has a washer that is put down over the top and then the shaft is peened to hold the washer and the spring. If you cannot get the shaft to rise above the top of the tube this is going to be a bit of a ***** to deal with. Can you give us a closeup of the inside of the tube?

[Guest Rmuskat]

Here are two pictures of the top. Hopefully you can see it okay.

[nickelroadster]

Is what we are looking at the mushroomed out end of the shaft? If it is, than I don't see any choice other than to grind the end off to remove the spring. Then that would leave you with a situation where you might not have enough material left to reuse the shaft. How tough would it be to make another one? Is the spring on this latch broken and that why you want to change it out? I have drilled a 1/16" hole in these shafts and then pinned to hold the spring but this would be difficult it it doesn't rise above the barrel. You might be able to do this if you drilled through the back of the barrel where you wouldn't see it. This would be a pretty touchy situation and you would want to get it just right before you operated. What kind of car does this go on?

[Guest Rmuskat]

Yes, what you are seeing is the mushroomed out end of the shaft. I think you are correct in your assessment as to the need to grind off the end. The main problem with the latch is that the tensile strength of the spring has reduced somehow. My assumption is that it is broken somewhere in the middle of the spring. There still exists suficient strenth to hold the hood down, but I know it is not as strong as the other three latches on my 32 Chrysler coupe.

Thanks for the help. I will eventually grind down the end and make a new shaft.

I really appreciate the very rapid and good advice.

Thanks.

[Guest martylum]

I think the solution is to grind off the retainer on the bottom end of the spring shaft rod where it protrudes through the mounting plate. It could be welded back on during reassembly.

Martin Lum

[Guest Rmuskat]

Very good suggestion Martin. Thanks

[nickelroadster]

Update,

I have a 27 Marmon which I am working on and I had not gotten to the hood latches. on inspecton , they looked almost identical in construction to the ones that you have. What I plan to do is to grind off the mushroomed area and then tap the end for a 4-40 screw. I will then use a washer to retain the spring. This way I can retain the exact length of the shaft and it will even allow for a little adjustment. Should be reallly easy to do if you have a drill press. Previously I had drilled a hole and pushed a pin in to retain the spring on ones from an Oldsmobile but I think that this will be better, allowing me to keep the same shaft lenghth and allow for future disassembly.

[Guest Rmuskat]

Thank you all for your help. I have solved my problem. I used my Dremel and filed the mushroom cap off. Then I threaded the outside of the 0.25" shaft. I am now able to put a small washer and nut on the end of the shaft so that I can adjust the tension in the latch.

It seems to be working fine.

[Guest Rmuskat]

Thank you all. I have tried to post this a couple of times, but I think something happened and

it did not get posted. I have filed off the mushroom cap using my dremal and then removed the shaft and spring. Cleaned it all up. I threaded the outside of the 0.25" shaft so that I could add a washer and nut onto it. That way I can have an adjustable spring force.

Problem solved.