While I was trying to get my hood latch to work right, I discovered that I
had three of the hood side spring parts - one from a S3, a SIV and a SV,
and each was different at the safety latch. The S3 was the biggest/longest
and the SV the shortest. What I mean by that is that the safety latch is
in a shape of a "J", with the bottom part of the "J" being the part that
hooks on to the safety hook. On the S3 one, that bottom part of the "J"
sticks out just over 1/2" for a "healthy" hook. On the SV one, part of
that bottom part was cut straight across so that it only sticks out 3/8".
(Other than that, they are identical). This 1/8" makes a huge difference.
Try as I might, I could not get the S3 one to fully disengage properly
every time. The SV one works like a charm every time (and the safety hook
does still catch the hood if it slips open - even though of little use with
the front hinge hood).
So, in addition to my suggestion last week that if you ever run into
trouble, to try unbolting the bonnet release bracket near the dash so you
can get that last tiny bit of travel to open a stuck hood, I suggest
cutting the safety J down to 3/8"
The SIV one, by the way, was like the SV one, in that there was only a 3/8"
hook. But, it was not cut cleanly straight across like the SV one.
Rather, it was cut out in a circular path, with the deepest part in the
center, curving up and out to the edges of the hook. At first I thought it
was from wear, because it is a little rough. But, after seeing the SV one,
I realized it was probably intentional, and even though a little rough, too
well formed to be from haphazard wear. It seems way back in 1963 the
factory knew this was a problem and started down the road to curing it.
So good luck to you. May you never have a stuck hood again!
Jay
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