Hood latch pins trouble?

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Ford focus and 1967 Fiat 500.
Hi Forum....a beautiful day.....amazing sunshine....I had time today to wax and polish my 71 after its journey from Canada to Denmark. My daughter wiped/detailed the inside of the car and the rims. I did the outside. NOW she(the car) shines again!

I must be daft......I have trouble opening and latching the hood pins. What am I doing wrong?

To open....I press down slightly and turn.......but I always end up pressing/turning a few times before it finally unlatches.

The exact opposite is true when I try to latch the pins too........I find it quite fiddly and it takes several push-down and turn trys to get it to latch.

I am really careful when doing the above, so as not to damage anything.

What is the technique?

 
The hood locks are really more decorative than anything. Sure, they work to keep the hood secured, but if you're having that much difficulty in getting them to latch/unlatch, you might need to adjust them a little bit.

Mine tend to do the same thing, and require periodic tightening of the locking bolt underneath. I know I still need to adjust them 'out' a little to ensure they don't buckle the sheet metal when latched.

Hope that helps!

 
I would digress and state that the hood latch pins are much more than decorative and add much needed additional lock down force of these big hoods. As always, my opinion only.

The push down latches are definitely finicky and will require possible adjustment based on your description. When working properly,, you should just be able to push down with minimal pressure on the latch and hood and begin to turn the latch to either tighten or loosen properly. If this is not occurring, something is not right with the latch on the underside of the hood. One of the things I noticed over the years was the latch coming loose underneath, requiring readjustment and tightening of the latch. It will take a bit of time to get it right, make sure that you do not overtighten the latches so that the hood is indented from the top side.

It just sounds like your latche (s) are or were loose and have caused the pin to misalign with the rad support braces when turning the top side latches. Hopefully, all the required pieces for the latches are present on your car?

 
I don't disagree that they have function - when engaged, they shouldn't have any issues keeping the hood from flying open at speed if the main hood latch were to fail. I've seen discussion of that here in the past, but have a hard time thinking it would ever happen (although I'm sure it certainly can).

Mine are brand new repop units, and when unlatched, they can be a little tricky to find the holes. Since the springs are located centrally, there is a lot of room for lateral movement of the locking pin. Basically, there is no perfect alignment up and down (as with pins & clips) - you close and latch the hood with the main hood latch, then push straight down on each hood lock and hope it's still lined up - might have to adjust slightly in case the center piece somehow rotated out of alignment with the keyed hole.

I'm sure they still need a bit of adjustment as well. ;)

 
I have owned a Mach 1 with hood pins for 43 years and this is my opinion. When someone throws you a basketball or soccer ball the first time and tells you to take off and dribble it to the basket or take the soccer ball to the goal it didn't work to well did it. Nothing wrong with you or the ball you just need to get use to the operation. There are so many places for things to move there can be adjustment issues for sure but they may just take some practice.

You can put a video camera under the hood to record what is happening so you can see exactly if the pin is too high too low or if the adjustable D washer in the radiator support bracket needs adjustment. Otherwise you are shooting in the dark with the exception of the length of the pin that will bow the hood as stated. It would be difficult to take the hood material to the yield point around the lock but anything is possible.

 
I seem to remember someone remarked on another thread that the hood lock looked like it was bowing the hood on the driver's side when the car was delivered overseas.

 
Regarding the bowing of the hood.....I have really, really looked closely at it.....there may be some VERY slight bowing which needs to be corrected........bit it isnt much. I have seen worse on other photos on the 'net.

I have also taken a good look at the functionality of the latches........turning/pressing slightly while looking under the hood..........it looks like my latches are ever so little short. I will have to extend/elongate them a bit.

 
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