ottawabarber

My hood release cable has worked fine since I bought my 88' but many threads here have mentioned horror stories of a broken cable and not being able to get the hood open.

One great solution that has been discussed here was a set of emergency release cables in the wipers area.

I decided to make a pair for mine and thought I would take some photo's to share for people like me who find a photo or drawing often times more understandable than only words.

Total cost was $7.00 !! 1/16" wire cable at .69 cents a foot, and one package of Cable Clamps and Stops and state tax. The clamps are aluminum and need to be hit with a hammer against a steel bar to crimp the cable properly.

Here is the location of the existing factory installed cable. Adjacent to the cable connection is a small opening that allows the 1/16" cable to go through.


This next one is a close up of the clamps I used.



Since I was using 1/16 cable I decided to drill a 1/8" hole through the rubber guard below the wipers to allow free movement. I tried to make the cable lay as straight as possible. This photo is the cable before being cut and the stop being put on.



These next two photo's show the cables completed, and the last is a close up of the connection. I intend to paint them black to make them blend in and not be so noticable.

Total time 30 minutes (a guy has to sip some malt beverage on a job like this )

I now have a great piece of mind knowing if my primary cable fails, I can still gain access to the underhood to fix it.







Hope this is helpful for some of you

Larry

Razor89

That's exactly what I did a couple of years ago.
I have never needed to use them but they do work great!

Smart and cheap mod to do to any old car with a cable release. I put one my dad's corsica a few years back and we have had to use it a couple of times.

jimg's'93

Nice job and a great write-up!

Eakster

Nice pics - thank you

Calderone

thanks,excellent,i just put some black zip ties yesterday just in case !

pologreen1

cool, I used black to hide mine more.

1bdvet

Looks good!

betyelou

Simple and effective. great job.

samsonb

Don't order the ones from Ecklers. They will rust.

pkazsr

:o I have all the parts to install the release in my tool box. They have been in there for 2+ years.

mrmtrtrnd

Thanks for the post, this was a job I was going to do in the spring and forgot. It's on my list now. Good job putting the pictures and info together.

ottawabarber

Thanks everyone Glad that you found this useful.

I agree with the fact they should be black, that is why in my details I said I only had to paint them black to be finished. It was too windy the day I did this to attempt to paint them.

Epimax

It's been one of those things I keep putting off, but need to do!
Excellent writeup and pics!

runner140*

Nice job and good pic's. I had an 18" black zip tie for years....now I use a pull cable like yours but never had the emergency to use.

jimmers

Thats exactly what I did to mine least year.

pianoguy

Nice job! I'm lazy and bought some of the ready-made cables, but it's a little project that's well worth doing, BEFORE it's needed ;-)

jimmymack

X2 But a great writeup and pics, good job

kenv

Thanks for the write up

hip

I installed my emergency cables last night, My hood cable broke Sunday. I pulled RF tire & pulled some bolts out of wheel well. I then used long screwdriver to push hood latch open. I went to good ole Wally world last night & bought 2, 12" 50 lb fishing leaders for .$50 snapped each 1 on to each hood latch. It works great. I thought since my hood release cable was new there would be no problem, luckly I was home when release cable came off.

wnafly

Excellent!! thanks for the pics too