Hey, all. It's been a while. Hope everyone is doing well.

So Red Rover figured out that I was spending more time with the motorcycle project than her and she rebelled in some very annoying ways.

First up, she has a problem one or more of the following: battery, alternator, short circuit. I haven't been driving her much lately because of the lack of AC and the 90+ temps we've been having. Two weekends ago I took her on some errands and she seemed to be fine. This past Monday I went to take one of the dogs to the vet in her, and she didn't have enough amps to crank the motor over. I took my dog the vet in a different car, came home and went to search for the problem. That's where issue number two popped up...

The freakin hood won't unlatch. The cable (like the Optima Red Top battery) is less than a year old and nice and shiny in the cab. I've had the hood open dozens of times and never had an issue, until the battery died of course. I tried disconnecting the cable from the lever and pulling like a strong man with a pair of vice grips with no luck. I tried poking around from the front with a long screw driver and the vice grips with no luck. I did a search here and found DiscoIIBrandon's thread, but I'm going to have to wait until after dark to poke around since she's sitting in full sun and I've already burned myself four times.

All that and Monday is my wife's birthday, Tuesday through Friday I'll be at conference in Vegas, and Saturday we have archery lessons. That leaves me Sunday to diagnose and fix all the problems so I can move her next Tuesday morning to avoid getting a $50 street sweeping parking ticket.

Grrr. I guess this was more of a rant than anything else, but my wife is taking a nap and it's too hot to work on anything outside so I don't have much better to do. I guess this is what I get for neglecting her, fickle beast.

 

I hate to say but from a non-emotional, inanimate mechanical object point of view it isn't a good thing to let something sit for long periods. These trucks perform better with constant usage.

As far as the hood, have a neighbor, your wife, whomever push down on the hood while you pull on the cable. After you get it open, align the hood latch, two bolts and adjust your hood bumpers and give the latch a little oil, grease or whatever to smoothly operate again.

Hey, I was out in 90 degree, humid air installing a head and yanking a radiator so no excuses, maintain your rig. I only came into the aircon to get a cup of coffee.......

 

So the battery was completely shot, and the hood latch turned out to be a heat issue. I went to mess with the hood early one morning and it popped right away. Tried it again a few days later in the middle of the afternoon; no love.

I swapped out the battery last week but I'm afraid that I have a short somewhere as I seem to be losing .4 volts over a 24hr period. For now I'm just going to keep driving it once a day, but longer term I think I might install a big battery cutoff switch (it's way easier than tracing a short).

 

IHSCOUTS - You are a bad man drinking coffee in the heat like that. I thought i was the only one crazy enough to do that. Here in GA 90 is a cool day lately.

Back on subject the 97 Disco that I just picked up had been a non runner for almost a year and the hood was a bear to get open. Once we finally got it open (using the push down and pull the release) method I adjusted the catch, lithium greased the mechanism inside and out and gave it several test pulls. Now it opens smooth as butter.....

 

See what hot coffee can do for you? The push pull is common with these rigs until somebody takes the time to do the work.

 

If doing battery cutoff switch also unplug the hood alarm switch. Truck can get confused as to waking up and being under attack. You can also use an amp meter and unplug fuses until you find the one that drops the most.

Amen on the grease both ends of the hood cable, one guy had his snap off and pull out when he yanked on it. Then you get to start on a Saudi grille....