My hood has been getting worse and worse to lock. It will close but now it wont lock on either side. Has this happened to any 1 else???

 

Happened to me. I just sprayed it "white grease" and pulled the hood release a few times and it was back to normal.

 

I had the same issue with the '98. I had tried lubing the latches and ended up getting new hood releases. They are still available through Jeep dealers.

There was an issue with the '97 which was different. The plate under the hood where the cable attaches and the rods to the latches is was rusted badly. On my previous '97, this happened also and I had to replace it. On this one, I removed it and pried on the arm where the cable attaches to loosen it up somewhat. I relubed it and it has been working fine since.

 

I had this problem on my 98. At least on one side. What happened to mine was that the little bar that the latch catches on was bent down a little. All I did was pried it up a bit until it latched again. No more problems since.