[Alpines] Hood Problem Solved

[Steve Sage]

An update. I followed my own "instructions" from my email earlier today 
and it worked. The hood opens now with no problem. Maybe this will help 
someone who runs into this in the future.

I positioned the hood back on the car, with the spring assembly 
attached, without reinstalling any bolts into the hinges in front. This 
locked the hood spring assembly into the receiver. Basically, it "self 
centered" the spring assembly into that hole. I pulled the hood release 
and it opened, and did that a few times. Then I installed just one bolt 
into each hinge in front (reaching through the grill) and snugged them 
down, but not too tight, and then adjusted the hood so the gaps were 
then pretty equal on both sides of the hood and especially at the front 
of the hood. I then really tightened just those two bolts up into the 
hinges. Then I opened the hood and propped it open. I installed one more 
bolt in each hinge and tightened the four bolts (two in each hinge) down 
snugly so now I had just the four bolts closest to the front of the car 
installed. This way if when I closed the hood again and it stuck, I 
wouldn't have to take out the four back bolts in the hinges (closest to 
the firewall) which are a lot more difficult to get to with the hood 
closed.  I opened and closed the hood again, crossed my fingers and 
pulled the hood release again. It opened again. Then, with the hood 
open, I installed the back four hinge bolts (easy with the hood open), 
closed the hood again and it again opened with no problem so, problem 
solved.

That all being said, the alignment isn't perfect and the hood doesn't 
quite pop all the way up. It comes up about 2/3 of an inch when I pull 
the release handle, and I just grab the corner of the hood and it's 
open. There's just a little resistance, not much. I've had it opened and 
closed about 30 times now though, so I'm not messing with that again.

Steve Sage




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