Went out in 9 degree weather the other morning, pulled hood latch lever to check engine oil and the lever broke off at the pivot! I guess its off to the dealer or wrecking yard to buy a new hood latch lever/bracket. My lever always seemed hard to pull - does the adjustment under the hood on the cable increase/decrease cable tension? I think I will spend some time creating an emergency cable access mod so that if my cable ever breaks, I can access engine compartment to replace cable -

It's not a hard job to do, neither it's an expensive part to buy, not even new. My car came with a broken latch and I had to get a new one. I thing it was around $15-20. You might want to oil the terminals at the hood... I did that and I did notice a change in tension. Not dramatic, but a change nevertheless and had no troubles in almost 2 years.

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[/SIGPIC]~cirrusman

1983 Mercedes Benz 300SD - Wife calls him "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"
[SIGPIC]




1983 Toyota Tercel (Tommy, The little Toyota that could)
1965 Ford F100 (Grandma Ford)
2005 Toyota Sienna (Elsa, Wife's ride)


Gone:
1988 Toyota Pickup
2004 Subaru Outback

1987 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham
1986 Volvo 740 GL Station Wagon - Piece of junk.
1981 Volvo 242 DL 2 Door - Hated to see it go. R.I.P.
1987 Pontiac Fiero GT

thanks!

http://www.allpartsexpress.com/ShopByVehicle.epc?q=1982-MERCEDES--BENZ-300sd--/--L5--3005cc--3.0l--Diesel--Fi--Turbo-Body--Parts&yearid=1982%40%401982&makeid=MERCEDES+BENZ%40%40MERCEDES+BENZ%40%40X&engineid=1194016%40%40300SD++%2F+L5%2D3005cc+3%2E0L+DIESEL+FI++Turbo%40%40300SD&catid=Body+Parts%40%40Body+Parts&subcatid=Hood+Handle@@Hood+Handle&mode=PA

Happened to me Fri. Took one off my parts car & noticed the pivot pin was larger in diameter than the old one. Looks like it was a known weak point that was corrected at some point in time by MB. I fixed the old one by drilling & tapping bracket to 1/4-20 at the broken pivot & drilled out lever to 1/4" then bolted it back together using loctite to hold bolt in place since it can't be tightened or lever won't pivot.

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82 300SD 202K
82 300SD 233K
83 300TD 340K
82 300TD 98k euro (parts on the hoof)
85 300TD 282K
83 300TD 197K