I did a search but with no reward. My hood sometimes catches the cowl between the wipers. It was not bent when this started but has gotten bent slight ly because of this. When I lift the hood I have to wiggle it back and forth to get it to lift above the cowl. I have tried adjusting the hinges.
any ideas?

 

Take the alignment bolts out, throw some locktite on them and align it better..
EDIT: FSM http://personal.utulsa.edu/~nathan-b...ical/2hood.pdf

Or take it to a body shop and have them do it..

Truck ever been in an accident ?

 

nope no accident. Its wierd that it only hits sometimes??

 

Idk ?

My old truck used to do that, I adjusted it and was done with it..

 

Hoods start to do that for several reasons.

1. The truck has been wrecked before. Unless you are the original owner, you can't say for sure if it has. People often use Taiwan replacement hoods, which are not as good as OEM and can catch the firewall.

2. The hinges, like any swivel point, wear out.

3. Once you catch that lip once, it bends the hood slightly down and it will do that forever. The correct way to fix it is get a new (or used) oem hood that has never touched the firewall, and a set of new hinges. This of course is going to be the most expensive option.

There really isn't a ton of adjustment possible with these hoods, they can only move so far forward.

 

As far as the accident thing goes your right you can never be 100% sure unless you are the original owner but a trained eye can see the telltale signs and this truck doesnt have any. There is almost no hood adjustment in these hinges only as much as the clearance between the bolts and the bolt holes(not enough to fix my issue) Your right about the downward bend on the hood though. I am thinking about taking the hood off and using a deadblow to tap it back out and hopefully that will give it enough clearance. I guess it only happens sometimes due to heat expansion or maybe body flex (I guess frame vehicles still have some body flex). Its really not that big of an issue now that I know how to open the hood
My buddys 83 Pickup does the same exact thing???

 

i never had alignment issues with my hood, but ive taken it off many many many times.. my trick was to get it aligned where i wanted it.. (the hard part)

and then i shot it with a little engine enamel so i could see if it moved or that i would have it all square whenever i had to take the hood off or install it alone.


little time/headache saver

 

I always trace hinges before I remove them Just in case but unfortunatly it didnt help

 

Mine used to do that. So I opened the hood, stuffed a 3x1" peice of wood in the opening between the hood and cowl, and bent the hood back up.