Tomster
Beware of idiots
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- #1
A while ago, I was going to tear down my hood latch mechanisms because the button was very difficult to operate. I suspected this was due to my car sitting outside in the elements for over 2 months which caused a degradation of my pin latch lubrication.
I called Quik-Latch and spoke to the owner of the company who was a great guy to speak with. I explained what was going on and he mentioned that he was working on this very problem with Ford in trying to figure out why and what to do about it. Instead of me going out and tearing the mechanisms out and doing a teardown, he asked me to try a few things and report back to him. His suggestion was initially trying WD-40 on the mechanism. I was not given specific instructions as to how or where to apply, so I went out to the garage and assessed the situation.
A while back, I put a post like this up, but apparently Ford reads this site and contacted the owner of Quik-Latch and it was mutually agreed to remove the thread until Ford officially posts a fix. I asked the mods to take the thread down.
Here is the procedure that I came up with that was passed along to quik-latch and then onto Ford. Be sure to read my warning at the end of this procedure. It is written in bold.
1. Find a 1/4" ratchet extension. You will be using both ends of this tool to manipulate the mechanism.
The larger end resets the mechanism
The shorter end resets the mechanism button
2. Use your choice of lubricant and apply into the top of the depressed button on top of the hood. (the OASIS recommendation is to apply Motorcraft XL 10). The WD40 shown was part of the experimental procedure to establish principle. See the OASIS message below (courtesy of @kilobravo)
3. Using the large end of the 1/4" ratchet extension as seen in step 1, push it in until the mechanism resets. Then use the small end of the ratchet extension and push it in to reset the button. As per the OASIS procedure, they recommend opening and closing the hood several times. Using the ratchet extension is faster and allows you to feel when the mechanism becomes loose again. See below.
Set in it, then push
ratchet extension pushed in (shown below)
The small end of the ratchet extension will reset the button.
Next, press the top button of the latch in and repeat the mechanism reset.
That's it, keep repeating the manipulation of the latch mechanism until it frees up and becomes smooth. The WD-40 that I used a long time ago is still working great. I think they decided to use the XL10 lube is that it probably will be more persistent over time.
Edited to add:
When you are finished with this procedure, make sure your latch is in the correct position before closing the hood. This is accomplished by pressing the button in on the top of the latch mechanism. I haven't tried it, but I don't think it would go well to slam a hood down on a mechanism that isn't set to receive the pin.
I called Quik-Latch and spoke to the owner of the company who was a great guy to speak with. I explained what was going on and he mentioned that he was working on this very problem with Ford in trying to figure out why and what to do about it. Instead of me going out and tearing the mechanisms out and doing a teardown, he asked me to try a few things and report back to him. His suggestion was initially trying WD-40 on the mechanism. I was not given specific instructions as to how or where to apply, so I went out to the garage and assessed the situation.
A while back, I put a post like this up, but apparently Ford reads this site and contacted the owner of Quik-Latch and it was mutually agreed to remove the thread until Ford officially posts a fix. I asked the mods to take the thread down.
Here is the procedure that I came up with that was passed along to quik-latch and then onto Ford. Be sure to read my warning at the end of this procedure. It is written in bold.
1. Find a 1/4" ratchet extension. You will be using both ends of this tool to manipulate the mechanism.
The larger end resets the mechanism
The shorter end resets the mechanism button
2. Use your choice of lubricant and apply into the top of the depressed button on top of the hood. (the OASIS recommendation is to apply Motorcraft XL 10). The WD40 shown was part of the experimental procedure to establish principle. See the OASIS message below (courtesy of @kilobravo)
3. Using the large end of the 1/4" ratchet extension as seen in step 1, push it in until the mechanism resets. Then use the small end of the ratchet extension and push it in to reset the button. As per the OASIS procedure, they recommend opening and closing the hood several times. Using the ratchet extension is faster and allows you to feel when the mechanism becomes loose again. See below.
Set in it, then push
ratchet extension pushed in (shown below)
The small end of the ratchet extension will reset the button.
Next, press the top button of the latch in and repeat the mechanism reset.
That's it, keep repeating the manipulation of the latch mechanism until it frees up and becomes smooth. The WD-40 that I used a long time ago is still working great. I think they decided to use the XL10 lube is that it probably will be more persistent over time.
Edited to add:
When you are finished with this procedure, make sure your latch is in the correct position before closing the hood. This is accomplished by pressing the button in on the top of the latch mechanism. I haven't tried it, but I don't think it would go well to slam a hood down on a mechanism that isn't set to receive the pin.
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