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Fri Apr 30, 2004 6:03 am

help! what is the procedure for opening a karmann ghia's front hood when the release cable acts as if its broke - I have a 1971 with the lever in the glove box - it worked fine till yesterday - I know with a bug how they cut the outside handle and remove it - but no exterior handle on a ghia.

Fri Apr 30, 2004 6:19 am

I've never had to do this yet, but I've heard you have two options. 1. Try to get at the latch thru the horn boot which may be impossible if you have a spare tire and other junk up front, or 2. try to get at it by destroying your glovebox.

Either way involves trying to juggle the latch using a long screwdriver or something and sounds like an absolute bitch of a job no matter how you choose to attack it.

Maybe someone else will wander by with a better idea.

Fri Apr 30, 2004 7:14 am

Even with the spare in there is enough room to do it from the horn boot. There is a "peg" on the hood that goes into the latch, this peg screws into the hood. The end of the peg (that faces down) has a slot in it for a screwdriver. You need to get a big long slot screwdriver, or a slot fitting for a ratchet and every ratchet extensiion you can find.
Pop out the horn boot and shine a flashlight up into the hole. Once you find the slot end get your screwdriver into it and start loosening. The peg has a nut on top that may spin, to avoid this you need to put some pressure on the hood (lifting it like you were trying to open it). Maybe a screwdriver wrapped in a rag stuck in the gap. As you loosen the peg more the hood will open more and more. You can thread it right out and the hood will open, there should be a spring and a washer that fall off with the peg.

When you run your new cable put an old piece of bike cable around the latch arm. This way when you break the next cable you can reach into the horn boot and tug the bike cable to pop the hood. I havn't done this on the front yet, but I did it on the engine compartment. I guess since you have a 71 you can go a few days without getting under the hood. For guys like Coad, who's fuel filler is under there it could tunr into a real pita.

Fri Apr 30, 2004 7:14 am

coad wrote: I've never had to do this yet, but I've heard you have two options. 1. Try to get at the latch thru the horn boot which may be impossible if you have a spare tire and other junk up front, or 2. try to get at it by destroying your glovebox.

Either way involves trying to juggle the latch using a long screwdriver or something and sounds like an absolute bitch of a job no matter how you choose to attack it.

Maybe someone else will wander by with a better idea.

I've unlatched my front hood with the spare tire in without a problem, reached up thru the horn boot and released the latch with my fingers.

Fri Apr 30, 2004 7:27 am

I, too, use the "Banzai method". A scenario more likely than your cable breaking, Gary, is that the cable sleeve is no longer clamed to the bottom of the glovebox, thus negating the abilities of the lever. I fixed this with a small hose clamp, but I'm not expecting it to hold forever.

Fri Apr 30, 2004 7:50 am

70 140 wrote: For guys like Coad, who's fuel filler is under there it could tunr into a real pita.

LOL, I'll admit that was my first thought too--""Hell, he's got the outside filler, he could go for months without dealing with this problem. Maybe it will fix itself"

Good Idea on the emergency ripcord hanging down. I think I'll do that.

Fri Apr 30, 2004 11:50 am

I, too, have wondered what to do other than break apart the horn boot. I found holes almost parallel to the hood latch on either side of the trunk. They go all the way through to under the fenderwell. It looks like you could attach a coathanger wire there, coat the part that touches the body with liquid rubber, and leave it there as insurance.

Anyone else done this?

'65sambafun

Fri Apr 30, 2004 11:57 am

you don't have to wreck your horn boot. Just pop the lip off where it seals to the body..............I guess for some original horn boots that would kill it

Fri Apr 30, 2004 3:28 pm

i freaked out when hood wouldn't open , but i stuck my arm up the horn boot and released it. the hard part was modifying the new glove box to fit . my ghia is a 73 and it would hit the defroster vent gizmo. i ground out the obstruction and used fiberglass cloth and resin to cover the hole. i then sprayed the whole thing satin black. thats how we do things here in oklahoma!!

Tue May 04, 2004 6:22 pm

thanks everybody - we were able to release the front hood thru the horn grill and the cable was not broke - it was a disinagrated cable sleeve. I will be installing the "rip-cord" idea on the both the front and rear trunk for in the future, thanks again for all the good advise, gary rowland

Fri Nov 12, 2004 9:10 am

My front hood rip-cord follows the plan suggested by a posting at aircooledaddiction.com: loop a piece of mechanic's wire (available at NAPA or just about any auto parts store) around the latch arm and run it out through the right hood drain tube exit hole below the right front corner of the hood. It was easy to do before I installed the drain tubes, but I managed to work the wire around the rubber tube with some effort after putting the tubes in. The end of the wire is now inside the right front wheel well, resting on the "shelf" formed by the air intake duct. I bought a 1 1/4" welded steel ring at a hardware store and twisted the wire around it. In actual fact, you would twist the wire on the ring first, then poke it through the drain tube hole, and, lastly, secure it to the latch arm. To get into the trunk, I just reach up into the wheel well, feel around for the ring, and give it a tug.

Fri Nov 12, 2004 12:47 pm

i've had the same problem once or twice... i popped out the horn boot and reached up there to pop it manually.

Fri May 19, 2006 4:32 pm

I've been running though some old posts.....

Even though my gas filler is outside the trunk, there still could be some cold beer in the trunk so I added a ripcord that exits near the pax side headlight bucket. It works so well, sometimes I use it instead of the glovebox lever to open the trunk out of simple laziness. Hopefully I won't wear it out for when I need it. :lol:

Works great!

Sat May 20, 2006 10:22 pm

Mmmmmmmmmmmm cold beer. the mother of all ingenuity.

Sun May 21, 2006 4:15 pm

beauty is in the eye of the beerholder!

Thu Jan 26, 2012 9:43 am

In my case the aftermarket plastic sleeve on the threaded adjustable latching post broke (imagine ThaT!?).
So my front hood would only lift about 1'.
It wasn't the release mechanism - I could reach that... and i could see the threaded post - so I disassembled a hack saw and using just the saw blade I cut my post to open the trunk.
tape the paint on the hood and leading edge of the nose where the blade may scratch.

Thu Jan 26, 2012 5:32 pm

I know this is an older thread, but I would want to add something to it anyways for anyone who is reading this. The hood latch cable does come loose sometimes and even stretches ( HMM, imagine that)
What I did as a precaution was on the end of the cable,after you tightened it with the standard clamp there, attach what is called a pin keeper. You can but them at any motorcycle shop. This is what bikers use on the back of their jacket pins to keep from losing them. it's a real small like a donut where the cable fits perfectly through the center. Position it where you want it on the end near the latch, and tighten it with the set screw on the side. They cost about 5 bucks for 10 of them at your local neighborhood motorcycle place. It's basically a backup if the main cable clamp loosens somehow. FYI real tiny allen wrench to tighten the set screw always comes with the keepers.

Mon Feb 06, 2012 6:51 am

thanx Guys, we just had to move the glove box out of the way 'cause the cable wasn't disconnected, as I thought. The plastic tube had broken and the cable stopper had nothing to resist. We dodged, that one!

Mon Mar 24, 2014 5:58 pm

I realilze this is an old thread but I am experiencing this same problem and haven't had much luck reaching up through the horn boot and releasing the hood. I can move the safety latch and I pull the cable but the hood isn't moving; its stuck.

Is my next step unscrewing the locking pin?

Thanks

Tue Mar 25, 2014 6:25 am

While you manipulate the safety latch have someone push on the hood a bit. Sometimes it needs a little help. If that doesn't work you will either need to go through the glove box or try unscrewing the latch.