Bonnet is Loose, Why ????

[Finny]

Not the hinges, but the lock at the front.
Need it fixed for Roadworthy.

When the bonnet is closed, it moves up and down a bit.
About an Inch or so.
Its mostly the passenger side, the drivers side seems reasonable firm.
Catch is in the middle, so I'm not sure why this happens.

I thought it may have been a dodgy Bump stop, as it had been bent in a bit and I could see that the metal was weak.
So I cut it out and welding in some fresh metal.
Now it's strong and back where it should be.

Readjusted the height setting, But the looseness is still there.
Its not the hinges at the back .

Looked at one out of the car and it looks like the movement is just the way it is ?

I don't have a bonnet lock and wasn't planning on getting one.

How do you remove the slack in it ? An why does it happen more on one side ????
Very frustrated........................

[Dakam]

Hey Finny, mine is the same, and I am pretty sure my old red FB was the same as well. I just thought its just the way they are. It isnt rediculously loose, but there is some movement.
Dave.

[Ken]

prob a long shot but just a thought


did you change the side rubbers along the guards? 2 each side)

i just did mine (bonnet used to squeak) and now so tight it barely shuts, gotta push down way harder now hard to latch - There used to be movement and now its tight as

[rosco]

Hi Adrian,
mine "rocks" a little if I forget to pull the hood lock button - but I understand you don't have this.

When mine is latched - closed, there is probably only about 1/4" movement.

I fitted new bump stop rubbers (those which are fitted over the screws under the hood) and adjusted them so that the bonnet bar lined up with the bars on the fenders.

For the purpose of satisfying a roadworthy - to remove the gap, you may wish to adjust the screws out a bit to take up the slack..... it won't "look" aesthetically pleasing, but there shouldn't be any gap in the mech....

I didn't have to shim anything for the latch mechanism in mine to hold it in place with minimum gap.

I believe adjustment of the locking plate is supposed to be done by shims between the lower baffle crossmember and the lock plate.
If you have shims fitted - then try removing them one at a time.

It may be possible to move the lower baffle crossmember down a bit to lower the lock plate if needed.

If this fails, you may find that there are incorrectly fitted shims between the hood lock assembly and the bonnet.... try removing these if they are there.....

I note that the "good book" stipulates to leave a gap of 9/32" between the rubber crossmember bump stops and the crossmember.... I didn't.....

frats,
Rosco

[Finny]

Ken, it doesn't have the side rubbers on the guards, all missing.
I would imagine that that would allow me to lock it tighter also.

Rosco, yes I have already extended the bump stop rubbers by adding new rubber, and cutting our and welding up the passenger side fixed that up also.

I will adjust them out as far as they can go.

I'm going to remove the locking plate and do the shims to see what difference it makes.

[Finny]

Thanks for all the feedback. All fixed now.

Adjusted the bump stops out further, and moved the lock up higher by placing washers on the inside.
But it was actually the base plate that it locks into that was worn on one side.

So I replaced it with the one off the wagon, and its now nice and tight.
A little bit high on the passenger side, but not too much.

[rosco]

Happy to learn that this one is out of the way, Finny....
Don't throw away that other plate.... you may be able to weld a suitable sized rod in which will restore the profile.....

Four new bonnet rubbers on the guards will hold the bonnet in place... you may have to fiddle with fitting them... they have "tabs" to locate them - I trimmed those on one side of mine to find a neat alignment for the bonnet to sit at..... the bump stop rubbers for the cross-member were then adjusted to keep it at the correct height whilst the Sikaflex cured holding the others....

frats,
Rosco