get a light and a kinda long screwdrive, look through the grill towards where the latch is, see if you can 'pop' down the black plastic cover on the bottem of the latch, its rivited on, so might take some persuasion to get it down. at the edge closest to the engine, there a tab that is slightly lower then the edge of the latch, thats where the cable hooks up, try and move it towards the drivers side of the car, itll help if you have slight downward pressure on the hood

 

Ok Roverguy, I figured i could follow your instruction before giving up and it worked! Thanks! Rather than going through the grill, I came in from the bottom (I removed the chicken wire giving me great access) stuck in the screw driver and carefully popped the cover off by prying the screwdriver right were the rivets were. Came off easily! With the mechanism exposed it was just a matter of pushing where the cable would normally pull (if that makes sense). The hood opened up and I unscrewed the locking mechanism allowing me to thoroughly oil it. Then as I was moving it, I noticed the sound of the cable moving and it appeared as if nothing was wrong with it. I put it back together and got in the car, and took a good look. It appeared that the outer housing of the cable is being held back (so that the actual cable moves), but it had come undone which caused for the slack. So initially i did not think there was a problem inside the car as the cable felt good and connected, but when actually looking at it.... I could have saved myself about an hour! Anyway... Thanks for your help. At least i got it all greased now, which I would not have done otherwise.

Cheers!

 

this is actually a easy one i had this problem a few months ago.... use a hanger or something that hooks at the end if you look about a inch above the grille on the inside you will see a cable you can use the hanger or hook to pull that cable that will make the hood pop.... what i did was put a zip tie on that cable so I can now open my hood by just pulling on the zip tie.

 

ooops i just read that you got it fixed... but maybe the zip tie addition will help.