Hey guys just picked up an 04 ram 1500 quad cab and I can't get the hood open. I have tryed the whole pulling the cable thing while someone is pulling up on the hood and still nothing. Does anyone know a quick trick to try? Thanks in advance!!!

 

I had this happen once... If you study the hood latch through the grill you can see where you need to get a screwdriver in there and manually release the latch. Spray it down with penetrating oil and then once you get it free, grease it up good. I think i was able to push up on one of the metal rods in there with the screwdriver. This of course is all assuming that nothing has broken inside the latch mechanism.

 

Thanks!! Wonder if it's possible to remove the grille with the hood closed? The good thing here is that the truck is lifted and I have room to see the bottom side of the latch!

 

I give mine a shot of white grease every six months or so (along with all the hinges and latches). Once you get it freed up, you might want to try that. As for grill removal with the hood closed, I guess it's possible.

 

Same thing here. When I bought my truck I couldn't get the hood to open either. When I finally got it opened (by doing what RamTracks suggested) I was able to thoroughly look it over. All it need was a good lubing.

 

How did you get the screwdriver into the latch area to release it?

 

Maybe from under the truck?

 

I think the problem that i had was with the secondary release on the hood itself, not with the cable from the inside of the truck... But if you look inside the grill where the cable goes, you can probably figure out a way to release it with a screwdriver. I don't have my truck to look at it now or else i would go mess around with it and find a solution for when it inevitable happens to me.

 

I couldn't close the hood fully. It would hang okay on the safety latch for about a month...some times at 80 mph. Other drivers would pull up beside me and tell me my hood was open and in a Jaws like fashion, chopping up and down. Got tired of that, so I pulled into the garage and opened her up.

I could take a screw driver and drive it down but it wouldn't hold. I undid the two bolts on the front and it popped off.

On the underside I could see where the hood latch cable attached.

The cable attaches to a lever. In the opposite direction, a spring pulls on the other side. The spring is used to bring the lever back into position, so the hood release retracts for the next pull. The positioning of the lever that shortens the cable, allows the hood latch to seat. Without that repostioning the latch will not lock. A second lever on the latch has its own spring to frorce it up.

It my case the spring was broken and the firsat lever would not repostion itself to allow the latch to lock when the hood is forced down. Tries to replace spring. no luck. I remodelled the spring that had a broken end with a pair of needle nose pliers. works now...but I will look for the right spring...as it was brittle and bending it to create another hook on one end took a few tries.