I had the short cable break the nipple off on the end, so I purchased a new one and spent the day working on putting the locking system together today. I wanted to get some feed back before I try shutting the bonnet and finding out that I have managed to lock myself out. I had to take the locking mechanisms off to clean them because they were pretty bad. I tried to put everything back where it was before, so my guess is I just need to make sure the locks open enough to clear the latches or am I missing something?

 

Have a look in 'The Stickies' Greg has been there and done it on fixing Bonnet/Hood Locks

 

And remember that Jaguar changed the locking mechanism on the later facelift cars from a lever that locks the latches, to a lever that unlatches them .

Paul

 

Yes, I just saw that write up on Bonnet/Hood locks. I'm going to have to read it a couple of times to make sure I understand it. There is a lot of information there.

 

Well, I think I have it done and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I have to admit, I did it a little differently. I noticed the the latch on the passenger side was not as tight as the right side, so I tightened up the left side a hair. This would tighten both R & L sides which was alright because the looked to be even. Being I had tighten both sides up I loosened the short cable on the hood latch handle in the car. I watched the hood to make sure both sides were lowering at the same rate. When the inside handle was about to start to lock up, I noticed that the hood was down. So, I went ahead and turned the inner handle until it started to get snug. About that time the small cable slipped a little (because I kept it loose) and the handle was about to lock up. So, that's when I tightened it up and slowly tried the hood latch inside the car. It felt like only a very light pressure when completely closed. I then went to the hood and checked the hood corners by the window and I made sure there was no movement. The one thing I kept in mine was that I didn't want to break the nipple off the short cable.