Front Hood Lock Cable Release Replacement, Is there a DIY available for replacement? Options

[earossi]

I need to replace the wire cable and its sheath that operates the front trunk hood. Is there an "easy" way to do this? Any pitfalls? Better yet, is there a DIY writeup out there. I used the Search feature but nothing turned up.

[earossi]

OK. All done......and successfully! It was an interesting day as I worked on my "new to me" 914. When you enter into working on one of these cars with Murphy as your copilot, the days get interesting. I made every mistake one can make. But, it was a learning experience.

I've worked on 944's, 968's, 911's and my 993. I'm not new to the breed; however, the 914 was a learning experience. I guess that looking back on it now, I can say that a lot of "human engineering" went into the design of components on the 914.

For example, one has to drop the front trunk pull handle in order to change out the cable. There are two socket head cap screws that secure the pull handle to the chassis. I expected to find those bolts in the cabin adjacent to the pull handle. Unfortunately, that is a very congested area. Lots of cables and wiring harnesses plus the fuse box in that area of the car. Well, as most know, the bolts actually are installed from within the front trunk. Easy to get to.....once you know where to look (right behind the brake fluid reservoir). Then my concern was in reinstalling the pull handle. The handle has to be positioned in its proper place under the dash board, and then the bolts have to be installed from within the front trunk area. My first thought was that this would be a two man job. Then as I thought about it, I wondered whether I could stand in the area where the open door meets the body and somehow be able to use my right hand to position the pull handle while at the same time using my left hand to install the bolts. Ironically, that was exactly what happened. That was a superb example of properly applied human engineering! It turned out to not only be a one person job......and an easy one person job.

So, my new cable and its related sheathe are now installed. I found the old sheathe had become embrittled from age, and broken in two spots. Furthermore, water had apparently found its way into the sheathe over the years and almost two feet of the pull cable were heavily corroded. The sheathe breakage resulted in misalignment of the cable and the corrosion produced friction drag within the sheathe/pull wire system.

During my learning phase, I managed to close the trunk lid when the adjustment was incorrect and the handle did not actuate the latch. That required that I learn how to remove the front bumper for access to the hole that allows you to open the front compartment.

As I said.....Murphy was with me all day!

So, what did I learn today:

1. The car is well engineered for repair work....if you know what to do.
2. Replacing the cable and/or the cable sheathe is easy. In retrospect, with knowledge of how to do it, the job should have taken no more than about 1 to 2 hours. With Murphy on board, it took 9 hours!
3. Removing the front bumper is a piece of cake. Four bolts, easily accessible from the wheel wells. Took about 10 minutes to pull the bumper. No need to remove the spoiler or any other part.
4. In retrospect, the car is fairly simple. No special tools required. But, it helps immensely, to know the steps required for any procedure.
5. This forum was invaluable in educating me on how to do the job!
6. At the same time, this forum's SEARCH function is a royal PITA. I searched for almost two hours, and did not learn much. It was answers to my questions provided by members responding to my post that was of the greatest benefit.
7. Since the uninitiated who attempt this job with Murphy on their team will become frustrated, I've decided to do a DIY posting for this simple job.