I bought a 2000 Cherokee Limited last month, and I've used info from this forum to fix countless issues. This is my first Jeep, and I love it. I bought it from a guy who sideswiped a guardrail and I've done a ton of work to it. But the one thing that has been a thorn in my side has been the hood. The driver side latch wouldn't work when I got it. I replaced the cable and both latches from a junkyard Jeep that had a perfectly-functioning hood. Neither latch worked. I bought a new center latch thing (not sure of the technical term) from the dealer, installed it, and then only the passenger side hood latch worked. Damn. When I tried to open the hood again to figure out why- goodbye hood release handle. It's pulled out far- can't even get it open with vice grips. Fast forward a week- my battery that I should have replaced dies. What would have been a simple replacement led to a AAA tow. I removed my grille, HL bezel, and DS HL bucket to open the hood. (passenger side is already unlatched so no need to do anything there). I removed the bolt for the latch catch, and the hood still won't go anywhere. I've done all I can w/o damaging the hood or header panel. Is there something that I'm missing? I'm usually pretty self-sufficient when it comes to vehicles, but I'm admitting defeat here people. By a hood latch. Right now it's dead in my driveway until I can get this thing open. I had to pick up my Christmas tree in a Honda Accord hatchback. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Before shot:




After: -still a lot of work to do but not bad for a few weeks.

 

No help on the latch, but that's some nice work you've done there.

Only down side is..........it's so purdy you wouldn't want to take it wheeling now.

 

Thanks. Eventually I will probably do a mild lift and some mods- nothing crazy. Bump- still need help!

 

There are two bolts on the latch. Did you remove them both? One directly behind the headlight. The other is tough to see. It is a special bolt that is vertical up underneath upper cross member that holds the radiator down. You will need a deep socket and ratchet to get it. 13mm I think.

 

I had the same problem when I bought mine. Long story short, I had about 1 hour to figure out the problem, but couldn't; so after prying on the hood and screwing up a corner of it, I used a sawzall to cut the stuck hood latch, then knocked it open with a prybar. You probably don't want to do all that, but if you could access the stuck latch without messing up the hood, you could cut it and get the hood open. Then you could just use hood pins instead of the latches.

 

Well, I'm an idiot. I had just removed that bolt that's way up in there. I didn't unbolt the obvious one right behind the headlight because it didn't appear to be part of the latch. Just went out in the blizzard to do it, and it popped right open! I tossed the battery in so I could drive it in the garage, and guess what? The guy who towed it left the key in the ignition and the doors all locked on me when I hooked up the battery. So procrastinating on getting a second set of keys bites me in the ***. I'm guessing the dealer can make me one tomorrow, unless I can find my way in with some locksmith tools I have laying around. Thanks for the help people! I was all set to have it towed somewhere tomorrow as I can't wait to have it out to play in the snow. Glad I didn't.

 

Glad it worked out.