nfld96ford

The latch was both frozen and dry from not being greased. I had closed the hood with a bit of force when the primary was only half working, thus jamming the hood partly shut, unable to open/close fully.
I attempted to open it by removing the latch from the rad support, but couldn't quite access the two retaining bolts. Where the hood was stuck fast, there wasn't enough room to get any tools in there to unscrew the bolts.
So then I tried to remove the grille, but again tools on the grille screws along the top were out of the question. I was left with no choice but to yank the plastic grille out (cold weather SUCKS!) and took the latch off the rad support, thereby opening the hood. The original grille is mainly intact but it is broken in several places, mostly where it screws on to the header panel.
Then, I heated and greased up the latch, worked everything back and forth and got it all moving/releasing freely. Problem solved.
Until I went to open the hood again to change the plug wires. Then the release cable broke right at the end of the release handle inside the cab, with very little force.
I made up a rip cord out of stiff wire and connected it to the release lever on the latch assembly, so now it opens outside instead of inside the cab. Old school lol.
I bought a grille from eBay last night, and I might try to rig my old grille back in for the time being until the new one arrives for the sake of protecting the rads, coolers, etc. and make the truck look more presentable...
New plug wires fixed my starting issue, for the most part. It ran a bit poorly at first until I separated the wires. Seems as though it was cross-firing bad enough to cause a rough idle and stumbling acceleration.
This truck needs a lot of TLC, and I knew this when I bought it in November 2013. I have done a lot to it, but now the stuff I haven't been able to address for various reasons is coming unglued, and I'm left playing catch-up on the maintenance/service issues.
If I can get another couple months out of the old girl with no major failures, I'll be able to spend a bit of time and money on it and put it back on top-shelf.
Thanks for the support guys, nice to know there are people who will help others when they are in need.

Chris_1

iTrader: (1)

So much easier to get at the little things when it's not flippin' minus 17 out. Spring's only a couple months away !