Drew,
"My TR4 hood won't open" is the usual complaint - you're luckier in that
regard.
I recommend getting your hood latch straightened out and fine tuned. Some
folks install backup cables or rod actuated levers in case normal cable breaks
but I've never had a problem.
Once adjusted correctly, it should work like a charm. I can easily open mine,
then simply drop hood from 12 inches to close.
During a heat wave and stuck in traffic you can reach over and pop the hood
to get much more air passage through engine compartment to cool things off.
Then once out of traffic reach around windshield, raise hood a foot and drop it
closed again .. while driving! Since it's backward hinged you can drive fairly
safely with it unlatched.
Eliminating kinks is always a good goal with cables but difficulty sounds
more likely a mal-adjusted latch mechanism.
Good luck,
Carl
'63 TR4 since '74
I've been driving the TR4 a bit around the neighborhoods, and I've
been having some trouble with the bonnet release. If I hit a decent
bump, the bonnet will pop open. Not an ideal situation! The cable
release, while looking fairly new, is fairly hard to use. I
disconnected the cable from the bonnet latch, and tried to use my
motorcycle cable luber on it, but since the cable wrap is open, it
just made a bit of a mess. It seems that the cable is sticking
somewhere, and the bonnet is not then able to latch fully.
Any thoughts? I'm going to try to take the cable all the way out and
clean/lube it to see if that helps. Then next thing I guess is to
look at fixing the hood alignment (it's a little out of whack).
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