Another Mopar Off My Bucket List - Barracuda Fastback
The weather was great today. - In the 70s and a window of opportunity to work outside on the truck's hood latch.
The reason I couldn't access the latch yesterday with a long straight blade screwdriver was because my '01 has a honeycomb grill.
When I studied photos of the latch on a Google search today I noticed that it was only attached with 2 bolts and it looked as though they could be accessed through my grill. The website said they were 8mm head bolts. When I searched my tools I found that the only 8mm sockets I had were 1/4" drive and I didn't have enough long extensions to reach the bolt heads. I used a 5/16" socket that was a 3/8" drive instead. I had plenty of 3/8" drive extensions.
It didn't take long to run the bolts out. I was able to open the hood far enough to access the latch which was still attached to the release cable. A little finagling and I had it apart. Although I couldn't find any damaged parts I noticed that there was a lot of play in the 2 attaching points. I figure the latch had gradually worked itself over to the point where the cable no longer could pull it far enough to release. I lubed it up with a silicone spray and adjusted it as far to the passenger side as I could. - Works great now but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed.
When I was finally able to get to the battery it still looked clean, but when I pulled the terminals off I found that it had corrosion between the posts and the cable ends. I'm mobile again after cleaning them up and charging the battery!
View attachment IMG_6624.jpg
View attachment IMG_6625.jpg
View attachment IMG_6628.jpg
View attachment IMG_6629.jpg
The weather was great today. - In the 70s and a window of opportunity to work outside on the truck's hood latch.
The reason I couldn't access the latch yesterday with a long straight blade screwdriver was because my '01 has a honeycomb grill.
When I studied photos of the latch on a Google search today I noticed that it was only attached with 2 bolts and it looked as though they could be accessed through my grill. The website said they were 8mm head bolts. When I searched my tools I found that the only 8mm sockets I had were 1/4" drive and I didn't have enough long extensions to reach the bolt heads. I used a 5/16" socket that was a 3/8" drive instead. I had plenty of 3/8" drive extensions.
It didn't take long to run the bolts out. I was able to open the hood far enough to access the latch which was still attached to the release cable. A little finagling and I had it apart. Although I couldn't find any damaged parts I noticed that there was a lot of play in the 2 attaching points. I figure the latch had gradually worked itself over to the point where the cable no longer could pull it far enough to release. I lubed it up with a silicone spray and adjusted it as far to the passenger side as I could. - Works great now but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed.
When I was finally able to get to the battery it still looked clean, but when I pulled the terminals off I found that it had corrosion between the posts and the cable ends. I'm mobile again after cleaning them up and charging the battery!
View attachment IMG_6624.jpg
View attachment IMG_6625.jpg
View attachment IMG_6628.jpg
View attachment IMG_6629.jpg