Hood Hinge Adjusting

[JohnC]

Hi all....So a few months back I replaced the motor mounts so I took the hood off.....which I knew would be a problem when reinstalling...so after installing the hood back on a few weeks back, everything I tried, I can't get the rear of the hood to sit flat. When I took it off it sat pretty well...Reading all the posts on here....is a rebuild or buy a set the way to go...I did notice that when I open the hood now, there is a little slop in it now...it doesn't sit all the way up...once i open i all the way, it looks like it drops a couple inches.

Thank All

[Joseph Stebbins]

Did you drill an 1/8” pair of holes through the hinge and boot before you removed it? That is the best way to make a reference for re-installation.

It sounds like it would be a good thing to rebuild them. If you can have somebody move the hood in the midpoint up and down while you look at the pivot points on the hinges if they jiggle side to side or up and down while that is going on you need to rebuild them.

[Barry Wolk]

Did you take the hinge loose from the body? Are your springs worn into the perches? Just the smallest amount or wear will make your hood droop. Are your rear-most hood bolts tightened to spec? Don't over-tighten.

[JohnC]

Hey Joseph...I did not drill the 1/8 holes...I learned about this after the fact. I will have someone move the hood to see if it jiggles at the pivot points...would this affect the hood not sitting flush at the rear. I can't get it down about 1/4"....maybe a little less.

[JohnC]

Hey Barry hope all is well. I did not take the hinge loose from the body...I never went under the dash to loosen the nut under there. I do have a very noticeable hood droop now that i didn't have before I took the hood off...will this effect the hood not sitting flush at the rear now also? Even if we push down on the rear of the hood. it won't budge. It seems like it up a 1/4"...maybe a little less and the gap is wide too. I tried to take a picture or 2 but you really couldn't see it in the pictures.

Thanks

[Barry Wolk]

Did you replace the engine compartment seal?

[JohnC]

The seal around the back side of the hood? I did not

[Barry Wolk]

The seal that attaches to the cowl to prevent water from getting into the engine compartment. Did you check the tightness of the rear 5/16” fine bolts?

[JohnC]

I didnt touch that seal...you think it may be binding up on that? It wasn't before. I replaced the old bolts with new grade 8 5/16-24...i think we torqued it down to 20lbs. Not only does it not sit flush, it seems like it needs to go back a little. I'm all the way back on the oblong holes on the hood...it seems like the way it arcs in (if that makes sense) is off.

[Barry Wolk]

Sounds like worn hinges. Watch the rivets while someone hyper-extends the hood looking for movement.

[Mark Norris]

Hi John - I feel your pain, the same thing happened to me when I removed the hood to repair spot welds between the top and bottom surfaces (..covered elsewhere in the Forum).

Its a pantograph hinge which means as the hood front arcs downwards towards the hood catch then the rear of the hood tucks down at the last moment to meet the scuttle height. If the rear of the hood sits above the scuttle when the front of the hood is closed on the latch then that's the issue I had and I suspect its the same for you. Its because the hood hinges haven't rotated far enough to do the final tuck down part of the motion. This happens if a) the hinge pins are worn and/or b) of the hinge has rotated slightly clockwise (when viewed from the side of the car) in the body holes and if I recall the hinge springs tend to drive this to happen. If the hood fitted OK before you removed it and now it doesn't then its probably (b).

I fixed it by propping up the hood with a stick (I always do this anyway as I?m afraid the hood hinges were a bit of a weak point in the Mark II design) and loosening all the body bolts on each hinge (note you'll need to remove the side trim panel in each footwell to get to some of the bolts/nuts) and rotating each hinge counter-clockwise as far as it will go and then tightening up the bolts/nuts while still applying the rotational force. That will hopefully fix the height issue at the scuttle so that the hood now aligns. To get the gap width to be uniform you may need to loosen the two bolts between the hinge and the hood support skin (this would have been solved by the 1/8" aligning hole you've seen mentioned). Be very careful as the hood is very heavy (as you know!) and perhaps better done as a two man job to make sure the paint doesn't get damaged. Slightly adjust the back and forth position of the hood on the hinge as necessary and retighten the bolts ..its a bit of a trial and error process without the guide holes but its doable.

The above worked for me (and one my own!) and was all done with the hood in place, good luck.

[JohnC]

Thanks Mark...this worked out really well....it's really close now, the gap is great...the height is just a little high but much better...my buddies think it looks great but I'm a little nuts so one more final adjustment (when they are in the mood to deal with me):o and I should be right on