[V8] hood opening, again - SUCCESS

[Kent McLean]

Tony and Lillie wrote:
> There are two bolts, IIRC. They are #3 phillips, I think.

To get to the release lever's bolts, I think you need to take the driver's
side kick panel off. Once I did that, the lever had enough room to pop both
sides of the hood. :)

Notes for the archives, hopefully to be followed by a Wiki write-up:

The release cable is a stiff wire, not a cable. It's sheathed in a coiled
protective cover.

The releases are located at the inner edge of each headlight. When you pull
on the lever, the right (US passenger) side release pulls towards the center
of the car, releasing its catch. Contrary to my logic, the left (driver) side
also pulls in towards the center.

Once those are free, there's a second safety catch. That one is released
by a small lever on the underside of the hood above the left (US driver)
headlight. It moves from passenger side to driver side, away from the
center of the car. Once that is free you can open the hood.

The cable is normally held by two plastic guides about 1 foot apart on
the inside (vertical) face of the metal frame/support above the radiator.
Each guide has two tabs that let is snap into place. On mine, each guide
has a broken tab, so they don't stay in their holes. That leaves too much
slack so the catches won't pop.

On my car, there is a keyring attached to a hole on the radiator support.
My cable goes through that, taking the place of the guides and taking up
the slack. But not all the slack.

The driver side kick panel is held in place by 4 hex-head bolts -- one
visible on the bottom of the panel by the driver's knee, the second hidden
on far left bottom of the panel by the driver's left knee, and two more
hidden behind the panel that covers the end of the dash and is visible when
you open the door. The bolt heads fit my 10-in-1 screw driver's smaller hex,
so I'm guessing 3/8-in or 5/16-in, which translates to 8mm or 10mm (or
maybe split the difference and call it 9mm).

Once that is free, the lever has more room to move. If needed, I guess you
can remove the lever from its perch and pull directly on the cable.

Thank you all for you suggestions and guidance.  Now on to the reversing
lights.

-- 
Kent McLean
1999 A4 Avant, V6 Tiptronic
1991 200 TQA #3, with mods
1990 V8 w/5-speed and other mods
gone: '91 200 TQA x2, '94 100 S Avant, '89 200 TQ "Bad Puppy"