Rand
New Member
After searching in vain for about 3 months now for a replacement for my 1972 Dart. I saw one or two on ebay along the way with high price tags and bad pictures. Please keep in mind that I'm cheap and paying 125 for something that "might" be my hood latch is just out of the question. So after a day of junkyard hopping rummaging through the Chrysler areas it turned out that nothing looked like the one from my car. After spreading out the search out to the rest of the junkyard I ran across a hood latch out of a GM pick up, late 80's through late 90's style. It looked nothing like my latch but had a very basic and functional design so for 7 bucks it made it's way home. Now before anyone gets all sorts of testy over a GM product holding a Mopar's hood down lets break it down...at least it's American, I could have yanked one off a Mazda.
After some hacking and welding this is the end result.
(What you are seeing above is the end result.)
I'm not sure if it works the same for every year dart but originally the rod connected to hood latch opening lever is a pulling operation. With this setup this operation is now a pusher, a steel rod was uses to adjust the difference in length. I got mine from a local place called Rural King, I'm sure one could be found at Sears, Local hardware store, or Craft store.
(This is the unit with rod with bent ends like stock)
The only other modification that was needed is that I had to move the striker bar on the hood side a 1/2' to the passenger side and was welded on. I will later fill in the bolt holes so that the can not be seen.
Tested it on the car a few days ago and it has worked so far.
Thanks for looking.
After some hacking and welding this is the end result.
(What you are seeing above is the end result.)
I'm not sure if it works the same for every year dart but originally the rod connected to hood latch opening lever is a pulling operation. With this setup this operation is now a pusher, a steel rod was uses to adjust the difference in length. I got mine from a local place called Rural King, I'm sure one could be found at Sears, Local hardware store, or Craft store.
(This is the unit with rod with bent ends like stock)
The only other modification that was needed is that I had to move the striker bar on the hood side a 1/2' to the passenger side and was welded on. I will later fill in the bolt holes so that the can not be seen.
Tested it on the car a few days ago and it has worked so far.
Thanks for looking.
