599 Hood Latch Failure

In a vastly inopportune time, the hood latch on our 599 failed. One of the two tensioner springs snapped, which resulted in the hood popping up while driving. I hope nobody else has to experience this, but if you do, make sure you are in manual and keep driving. If you stop the car it will shift into neutral and won't let you engage first. To start moving again, you have to jump out of the car, push the hood down so the sensor reads the hood as closed and then continue driving. We were able to limp the car home this way. The safety latches keep the hood down.

So now comes the hard part. How to fix this way out here in the desert. It doesn't seem like something that should require me to ship the car up north for service, but perhaps it is. I've ordered a replacement hood latch assembly, but I'm wondering if anyone has done this replacement before? Any tricks or advice for someone going in rather blind. It seems like this is something I should be able to do.

 

Thank F the safety latches held. I've been in a car when the bonnet flew up and cracked the windscreen. Proper brown pants moment.

Attached is an excerpt from the WSM showing the procedure for replacing the latch cable. Its the closest match I could find for your job. Looks like it has some useful info.

One thought I had that might be easier (might not be as well), is to repair your existing latch by cannibalizing the new latch for the spring you need?

 

That PDF was extremely helpful Brogenville! My wife and I were able to just drop in the latch replacement without much effort. The spring couldn't be replaced in situ, but we explored that first. All we had to do was remove the front cowling, disconnect the sensor, remove both cables, and then the three bolts holding the latch on. I am astonished it worked. It only took us about an hour. Now we can drive again!