fixing hood hinges

Hi:

My son and I are working on his 75 high sierra. He had the usual hood buckle, we got the LMC brackets to fix it. When we got it, the hood was sitting way too high, back by the cowl. We just got his hood back on, after painting, and his hood still wants to sit up real high, by the cowl. We checked, and the slotted adjuster holes on the hinge mounting bracket are maxed out in the direction that would lower it. You can just push the hood down, in the back, and it will stay down. So, does this indicate to you that the springs are worn out? Are we looking at just replacing the whole hinges?

Aaron

Have you cleaned and greased the hinges? I've had that be the source of problems more than once.

Also, I know you have the LMC braces but there is another brace from Holley/ brothers that saddles the weak spot and is better.

Bennyt said:

Have you cleaned and greased the hinges? I've had that be the source of problems more than once.

Also, I know you have the LMC braces but there is another brace from Holley/ brothers that saddles the weak spot and is better.

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Yeah, we've greased up the hinges pretty well. I can certainly hit them again, but as the hood sits up like an inch and a half from the front fenders, I'd be surprised if the fix is that simple. (Though I've been wrong before...). Agreed on the LMC braces--Shoulda done more research. they straightened the hood out, but I wasn't real impressed with the rigidity of them.

Aaron

AaronW said:

Yeah, we've greased up the hinges pretty well. I can certainly hit them again, but as the hood sits up like an inch and a half from the front fenders, I'd be surprised if the fix is that simple. (Though I've been wrong before...). Agreed on the LMC braces--Shoulda done more research. they straightened the hood out, but I wasn't real impressed with the rigidity of them.

Aaron

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There is suppose to be a weak spot,the hood folds instead of coming through the windshield in a crash. Keep your hinges cleaned and lubed and some common sense shutting the hood,it will be fine. I tried to find pics of crashed trucks with folded hoods,saw a good one a week ago,can't find it now.Ill keep looking.

Ricko1966 said:

There is suppose to be a weak spot,the hood folds instead of coming through the windshield in a crash. Keep your hinges cleaned and lubed and some common sense shutting the hood,it will be fine. I tried to find pics of crashed trucks with folded hoods,saw a good one a week ago,can't find it now.Ill keep looking.

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The hood buckle issue is separate from my main question here though, which is, how do I get the hinges to suck the back of the hood down to level with the front fenders. Could that be caused by weak springs on the hinges, or could something else be the issue?

Aaron

Ricko1966 said:

There is suppose to be a weak spot,the hood folds instead of coming through the windshield in a crash. Keep your hinges cleaned and lubed and some common sense shutting the hood,it will be fine. I tried to find pics of crashed trucks with folded hoods,saw a good one a week ago,can't find it now.Ill keep looking.

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I’ll take my chances, lol.
That said I need to get braces for the 77. Hood is perfect and opens and closes like butter, but I cringe a little every time I close it carefully.
As with most of our lives, pretty strong chance that a reinforced squarebody hood ain’t what’s gonna take us out.
Hell, just commuting to work in my F1shitty with all the latest safety stuff is far more dangerous. 3 of us have been rear ended coming home from work in the last 2 weeks!
And fwiw, I now understand the allure of active collision warning systems, lane keeping, blind spot sensors, etc. Really nice to have when driving in Seasianattle traffic daily!

AaronW said:

The hood buckle issue is separate from my main question here though, which is, how do I get the hinges to suck the back of the hood down to level with the front fenders. Could that be caused by weak springs on the hinges, or could something else be the issue?

Aaron

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Never really investigated it since I hadn’t been in a squarebody in 25 years until a few years ago. But as I recall, it was pretty common in 70s trucks back then. Had a couple 70s squares in the fleet at work when I was in high school. Put new hood hinges on one. (And installed some homemade hood braces because it was about to kink).
Just replace the hinge assemblies imo.

AaronW said:

The hood buckle issue is separate from my main question here though, which is, how do I get the hinges to suck the back of the hood down to level with the front fenders. Could that be caused by weak springs on the hinges, or could something else be the issue?

Aaron

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It sounds like the hinge pivot points are plum wore out. But there are a couple things you can do. If the top, rear of the fender still has the tall bolts that are designed to interlock with the hood (crash safety), the sloppy hinges might be riding on top of those as the hood as closed. If that happens, the tall bolts will hold the rear of the hood up a significant amount. You can replace those bolts with standard bolts to take care of that issue. Now, it gets rid of the safety feature if you do that, but if the hood just rides on top of the tall bolts, that safety feature was not in use anyway.

The other thing you can do is adjust the hinges to max "close" adjustment. Due to the hinge geometry, how you have it now is not actually the max adjustment. Loosen all 6 bolts (3 per side) that mount the hinges to the fenders. Then have a helper lift the hood up as high as it can possibly go and then tighten the bolts. If the hood still sits too high at the rear, you need new hinges.