hood latch

[clint hamilton]

due to a long chain of events which began with -40C weather, the handle for my hood latch (under the dash) snapped thereby preventing access under the hood where i need to recharge my dead battery. so far it's been sitting for two days/nights in this cold.
is there another way to get access to the engine compartment?
i've reefed on the chord with vice grips with no result. the chord, it seems, is fully extended and either frozen or seized in place and nothing is budging.

is there another way in there?!!!???!!!

[yogi_123rd]

Pulling with vice grips does require a bit of force to pop the hood because the handle has leverage, you do not.

If you pulled the cord fully and the hood doesn't pop, then the spring in the hood is sticking or rusted. You can try lifting up or pressing down on the hood to get it to pop up (release).

I don't think you can get at the hood release mechanism from the front grill with a long screwdriver. If you could, you would want to move the release lever (the end of the cable connects to this) to the right. Once opened, put some oil or grease on the mechanisms.

In last years cold wave, I snapped the hood release handle too. It is surprisingly easy to remove and replace. Obtain a replacement handle at a junk yard ($5). Same part - same over many years. The handle removes simply by pulling up on a retaining tab, and sliding off a pivot shaft. Once off, remove the cable's anchor from the handle.

[HiRez_L]

For a short term fix, you should be able to get in using 2 people, have one of you haul on the vice-grips attached to the cable while the other pulls on the hood, that will usually get into a stuck or frozen hood.