Hi, This is probably the dumb question of the month. Is there a cable pull somewhere in my '84 400i to release the hood latch when the battery comes up dead? Greg
Actually, I got the hood open by pulling a fuse and sticking a screw driver into the fuse seat. I then jumped a 12 Volt battery to the screw driver to pop the hood. This seemed like the long way around the block to me and I was fishing for an easier way for my wife to pop the hood when on the road alone in the 400i. She will be in 2 weeks on a 1300 mile round trip. I appologize if I seemed to be looking for great gain with little input. Greg
Several years back I had the experience of my hood latch cable breaking...On my 1980 Ser. 1, the hood latch cable i manual. not electronic..However, I believe that the actual locking mechanisms are the same..Here's what I concocted..Once open, I went to Home Depot and bought some thin cable by the foot and a package of mini swages. I replaced the entire biforcated opening cable clear back to the in-cabin lever (in an electronic system go to the solenoid arm)..Now comes the best part..On each mechanism I attached an additional short cable with a swaged loop in it just the right size for concealment in the hood/fender groove. I painted it to match the body color and it is impercievable tucked neatly in the groove..I periodically test-pull the right and left loops just to check its effectiveness..Perfect..I Hope that this is of some help to someone...Thank you very much..Jacques.
Al..At present, I don't have any pics, but can take some soon and post them...In the meantime, picture this...(no pun intended)..I inserted the short piece of cable into the same hole on the hood latch mechanism as the release cable and mini swaged it with some lineman's pliers...Then I used a length of that short cable to make a loop exactly long enough to bring the loop up through the corner of the hood/bonnet/body joint just enough to accomplish the mission and short enough to hide down in the crack to be retrieved in an emergency and swaged that..do two of course. one for starboard and one for port..I do hope that this helps you in future, as these old latches need to be lubed regularly, or they bind as you know...Thank you very much..Jacques.
