On a 1970 skylark, is there supposed to be a spring somewhere that holds the hood up after you pull the hood release lever? Mine has a very hard time releasing and the hood doesn't move up at all after pulling the release lever.
No spring on a 70 to hold the hood up. There is a spring on 71-2 Skylarks. I've probably owned 100 or so cars of different makes, and this hood is tough! It's partly due to the size + weight, any play in any of the latch parts complicates things. The latch design requires your hinges to be arrow straight, or the latch will stick.
Is there any way to adjust the latch, or retrofit the 72 style spring? It really is tough to open the hood, you basically have to pull the lever w/ one hand and lift the entire hood with the other, and 3 out of 4 times it doesn't release the hood, so you have to do the pull lever/pull up hood thing maybe 4-5 times ---------- Post added at 03:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:11 PM ---------- One more thing, aren't the 70-72 hoods the same? Thus, the 72 spring would fit on a 70??
[/COLOR]One more thing, aren't the 70-72 hoods the same? Thus, the 72 spring would fit on a 70??[/QUOTE] 70 Skylark Hood is 70 only. The front lip of the hood is different than the 71 & 72. 70 -72 GS hoods are the same minus the pop up spring
Is it the actual front lip of the hood that's different, or just the molding on the end of the hood and/or Buick lettering?
It's the hood itself. It's concaved across the front (above the chrome molding below the BUICK letters). The '70s are unique that way. If your hood is adjusted correctly and it's still hard to open, you can adjust the front latch left or right about 1/2" both ways (you can see the front hole is slotted). You probably have to move yours to the right (passenger side). IF your hood is straight. Take Care
If one of the three springs in the latch itself is weak and possibly causing the latch to not work properly, I have brand new sets of springs. $10 shipped for all three.
Not sure about that...thought it was just in the moldings. Know that GS hoods interchange on '70 to '72.
What Rick said...IF your hood is straight...that's really the key! You CAN move the latch 1/2" or so, but there really isn't that much room to move it within the hood. Sometimes you can see where it rubs on the latch. My car had a bent hinge that was very hard to see.
That's correct Korrie, it's the 1970 Skylark hood (like in my picture) that's unique. GS hoods do interchange + or - the spring. On a '70 the chrome trim fits both the GS and Skylark hoods but a real GS one has a wider bottom flange. Take Care
