[CheeseHead1]

Good news, I was able to get the hood to close and latch properly today.

When facing the car, the latch has a spring-loaded part that is pushed down by the metal U in the hood. The hood was closing properly, just not latching in the down position.

I tested the spring-loaded part with big screwdriver. Pushed down on it and it seemed to work OK.

I tested pulling the release handle. It seemed to be working OK. I had a helper watch to see what happened when I pulled the release handle (inside the vehicle). He said it was moving. I then switched places with the helper so I could observe the release handle being pulled and see the cable work. That part also seemed to be working correctly.

Then I looked more closely at the latch assembly. Facing the vehicle from the front, the main spring-loaded part was central and to the left (passenger side). However, I noticed there was a smaller metal part to the right side (drivers side), I guessed that was supposed to engage the main spring-loaded part to keep it down.

I had saturated the entire latch assembly the day before with WD40 but it still would not hold the hood down tight. So the second day I saturdated the latch assembly with PB Blaster. Wiggled things around with the screwdriver, then tried to close the hood again and darned if it didn't stay down.

I suspect the solution was a combination of the PB Blaster and also using a screwdriver to pry around a little bit and try to free up that second piece on the latch assembly, the smaller metal piece toward the drivers side.

I recalled that I had had this problem with the car once before, but it had been a while. Solution at that time was also to saturate the latch assembly with WD40, then wiggle the pieces around using a screwdriver.

Hope this helps someone else down the road...