Rear deck lid cable replacement

can you pop the latch from under the engine (is the engine in the car)?

based on your Q - i'm going to assume the engine is in the car.  lie on your back under the car (with jack stand holding the car up, etc) and use a small 1x2" piece of wood with a screw on it.  you should be able to pop it opened after you pry the wood past the cooling tin.  Have fun!!

you have to reach up (somehow) to pull the mechanism to pop the rear deck lid.  it's the only way.

once you get it opened - it's straight forward from there.

Maybe take off the deck lid vent and remove the latch pin? that's what I thought I would do if I broke my cable.

Quick fix: Attach a short cable to the latch and run that out through a small hole in the vertical wheel well, this gives you an emergency release.

I've got an older IM and when the rear cable went US I found I could not thread a new one through the old casing. I fitted a solenoid on the vertical wheel well over to the release latch and it works well. The solenoid is activated by a switch fitted behind the rear license plate and pushing on the plate releases the lid latch.

Alan's idea of a secondary cable over to and through the wheel well is a good idea. 

Wait a minute.....Is the question because the knob broke off of the end of the cable stud?  And if the cable stud on the cockpit end of the cable is still there, go to NAPA and get a replacement knob of the type that has a set-screw in it to tighten it onto the remaining shaft.   I've been running that type of knob for years.  Yes, it has a logo on it that says it is a windshield wiper knob, but so what?  It works, and I didn't have to pull a new wire through the tube.

Vice grips for now to get it open?

Sure - whatever works!

If I ever meet Stroud and his car is near by I'm going to open his engine lid every chance I get.  

We're a long ways apart, Amigo. Here's one pic from tonight. Engine's dirty and everything looks a little rough. I put 180 miles on it yesterday. The new engine sure runs well and the 3:44 r&p turned out to be a real good choice for my kind of driving.

DAVID !!!....That's beautiful engine turning on your firewall and side panels !!!   I'm guessing but is it aluminum and did you do it ?????  If you did...congratulations to you from ME ! I know how hare it is to do this !! AND don't it make your motor compartment look beautiful ???........Bruce

P.S.  Mt. Baldy was beautiful and will be even more when it snows up there.....Come-on people......Join me on my Mt. Wilson trip (here in Pasadena Ca. area) on the 24th of Sept........No snow.................Bruce

Here's a long shot.  Look up from underneath.  See if (like my car) there is a small opening in the engine floor area right behind the tail lights.  If there is and you are really good at @#$%^ing around, go from left hand side and you could fish a coat hanger up through there with a hook on the end.  Catch the release lever right where the current pull is attached and give it a yank.  May work, good luck.  And as always Jim, if you or any one of your crew is caught or captured, the SOC will disavowal any knowledge of your existence. This message will self destruct in 10 seconds...

aircooled posted:

DAVID !!!....That's beautiful engine turning on your firewall and side panels !!!   I'm guessing but is it aluminum and did you do it ?????  If you did...congratulations to you from ME ! I know how hare it is to do this !! AND don't it make your motor compartment look beautiful ???........Bruce

Thanks, Bruce. .020" 6061 I had laying around. I did it on my drill press with a 2" abrasive disc. My drill press didn't have enough range between the drill motor and the vertical frame to get all of it perfectly in line but it came out not too bad. 

If cable is broke, remove the deck lid grill screws, remove the nut holding the latch stud ..the lid will open.

Alan comes through again! After you get your lid fixed run a back up cable from the latch down under the car and secure it where you can pull it to open the lid next time your main cable release fails again.  I used a length  of aircraft steel wire that is used to secure bolts and screws from backing out on airplanes.  It's fairly thin and bendable so it works well.  

  This is another good tip I learned from the great folks on this site and the reason I am a supporting member.

Alan Merklin posted:

If cable is broke, remove the deck lid grill screws, remove the nut holding the latch stud ..the lid will open.

Brilliant!!  That will work.

That`s the way I got the lid open, Alan. Only problem was there was a lock nut on the latch stud and when I turned it the whole thing turned with the nut. Not enough threads sticking through the nut to get anything on it to keep the stud from turning. Had to get a cut off wheel on a die grinder and cut the whole thing off to get the lid open. Then had to make me a new stud.

Yeah, it took so long to build my speedster (but nothing, I guess, compared to Greg) that I lost that damn stud.  Had to make a new one from a socket-head bolt with a spacer on it.   I suppose that NOW is a good time to finally put the emergency release cable on my cover latch, too......

It wouldn't be convenient but, on my CMC, it seems like I could remove the exhaust and rear closure piece on the frame tube and then reach up and pull the latch.

Certainly true, you can probably get those things off in 30+ minutes or so, but wouldn't it be a lot easier to just reach up inside of the wheel well and pull a cable?

To some extent I was thinking of this as an alternative to removing the deck grille and cutting the nut off the pin and then making a new pin. 

I now do the extra cables on every speedster 

Drill (1/2" or what ever fits between the grilles) through the rain shield just above the latch. 

Mine will have a backup in the wheel well soon!!!