Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Hood Catches

Hi all,

Has anyone come up with a better solution to the dreadful old bonnet release catches Morgan repurposed for their easy-up hood?

I absolutely love my Morgan but the one thing I can't stand are the awful hood catches, one of mine is especially problematic as no matter how I adjust the sliding plate and or the pin, it either refuses to latch or it latches and then won't release!



I seem to remember the same design was used on the MGA and I think I've seen them on other vehicles, maybe the Sherpa van? In my opinion the trouble is these sliding plate catches are bonnet catches and they were never that great at their intended duty of latching and releasing a bonnet, so I don't know what Morgan were thinking when they chose the design for latching and tensioning their easy-up hood.

In the Morgan application these old bonnet catches are under tensioning loads they were never designed to hold, to me a set of over-centre catches would have made much more sense.

Anyway, I'm keen to see if anyone has come up with something better?

Thanks, Dave.

Those catches were standard across a lot of BL cars way back.

When Steve Simmonds does a hood conversion, he fits two over centre catches inside the cockpit on the rear rail. Although it's easy enough to drill the body frame along the rear edge and fit that part of the catch, the section inside the hood material is fragile and a few early cars had the frame snap, so drilling into the frame needs both care and hope.

Two things
1. Check the socket fixings by looking up under from the spare wheel well. Mine once came loose with bolts falling out, and consequently, the hood would not release.
2. Have a look at the positioning of the hood pin centralising relative to the catch sockets. There is a slotted part on the hood frame, secured by allen head 6 mm bolts, that can be adjusted to move the hood back and forth. If they become loose, the hood can move and then the sprung pin does not centralise as it should.

Alternatively buy a Morgan with a proper hood - just saying

I was similarly unhappy with the catches on my +8 until I was shown a dodge by an older more experienced hand. He explained that the catch and pin are held together in tension inhibiting smooth opening of the catch. To relieve the tension, try a quick press and release on the middle of the hood frame while working the lever at the same time. The lever will be easier to work and the hood springs up reliably. I do this every time. It just works. I know it’s a typically crude design but it can be made to work.

As JMcL, also check the pins on the hood as they are usually slightly bent and need to be curved in the right direction.

Agree, they are a PITA, Factory sorted mine because of a slight bend in the pin. They are classic Mini and cost about a fiver but not from MMC of course ....

Have had no serious trouble with mine but the whole system needs to be kept lubricated. I use aerosol spray grease which is thinned to avoid blocking the spray head with the thinner quickly evaporating away after grease has spread. I regularly coat the pins and socket area and also the locking plates underneath from time to time, accesible with spare wheel removed. The operating cable for the catch passes through a right angle guide which causes stiffness in release lever operation. Oiling this is extremly difficult due to lack of access but working a liitle oil in from underneath socket helps. Worth checking with hood released and help, that operation of release lever moves each sliding lock plate equally and smoothly when viewed from above through sockets.

As suggested pushing down on back of hood to momentarily reduce the tension on spring loaded pins aides release but adjustment of pins is important as well. Screwing in or out a fraction of a turn allows each catch pin to engage with just a little further downward travel being available to aid release. You should be able to feel the smallest amount of further compression available against pin spring and hood tension. This will aid release whilst still providing positive rear hood rail location. If the hood tension is inadequate when locked down at rear, the hood material to front rail tension can be increased by loosening locknuts each side and turning complete catch one full turn such that it still accurately engages with windscreen side catch.

Thanks all,

I really appreciate all your contributions and tips, the truth is I've had grief with the system from day one, in an attempt to resolve the problem I started by studying the cable and Ford Explorer door release lever setup, I found my cable was partially seized so I've completely eliminated this part of the system by removing it for the time being.

To replace it and operate the the sliding plate pin receivers (the catches) independently, I've attached a separate run of nylon paracord to each catch, I wasn't impressed with how MMC attempted to operate both catches simultaneously from one cable so I chose to fit two completely separate cords to conclusively prove the issue wasn't down to the cable adjustment between the two catches.

My two paracords exit through the offside seat belt aperture in the carpeted rear bulkhead, I then put a mower inertia pull start handle on each paracord to give me really good purchase when operating the sliding plate pin receivers (the catches), this is all a temporary measure designed to completely remove the MMC cable and Ford Explorer lever arrangement from my list of suspects.

To be honest my temporary Heath Robinson system works perfectly and in my opinion isn't much more crude that what the MMC gave us, my paracord pulls also conclusively prove there's absolutely no issue whatsoever with my offside pin receiver and pin adjustment, my temporary arrangement does what I wanted it to do by proving without any doubt I only need to focus on the problematic hood latching on the nearside.

My next step was to carefully study the relationship between the nearside pin and it's sliding plate receiver (the catch), after removing the spare wheel I found the sliding plate catch is secured under the rear deck with two allen head screws, and following this discovery I set about adjusting the sliding plate receiver trying a number of different positions, I tried many different pin depths by winding the pin in and out of the captive thread in the hood frame, I also noted gently bending the pin can help a little but this is a horrible way to adjust something so I'm trying to do this as little as possible.

Finally I disassembled my nearside pin and reinstalled it without its compression spring to see if that helped, it didn't, once again the pin either failed to latch securely enough to hold the hood under tension without popping out, or with a different set of adjustments it hooks in so well I can't release the damn thing, this proved to me the pin spring isn't the issue here.

Sadly, no matter what I do, no matter what combination of pin depths and sliding plate catch adjustments I try, my one problematic catch on the nearside either refuses to latch to the pin sufficiently well enough to hold the hood under tension, or it latches so securely I can't release the damn thing, after what feels like hours of tweaking and adjusting it seems arriving at the perfect alignment and balance between these two fail states is proving impossible to find.


Now with all that out of the way, I'd like to clarify a couple of your comments:

1.

Excuse my ignorance Deejay but I'm trying to understand this better, as outlined above I've adjusted the sliding plate receiver (the catch) that's secured under the rear deck with two allen head screws, but I haven't as yet found the adjustment on the hood frame you're describing, any chance of a photo?



2.

Actually Richard I feel less tension on my hood would help as there seems to be excessive load on my nearside catch, when I adjust it so it does latch correctly the excessive tension immediately pops it out, so less tension would definitely help. As this only happens on the nearside I'm wondering if my hood frame is twisted? However, just to clarify, are you saying the best way to achieve a change in hood tension and load on my problematic rear nearside hood catch is by adjusting my nearside header rail catch up front?


I'm going to have one last crack at it today, but if I fail to achieve success I'm thinking it's likely that my nearside rear hood catch has become irreversibly worn so will require replacement? I remember this type of bonnet catch on MGA;s I've worked on but now we know they were also used in Minis I assume new ones are available from the usual suspects like 'Mini Spares' etc?

Thanks again everyone, Dave.

I had the same problem with mine (a 2009 car) when I bought it a couple of years ago. I was familiar with those type of catches, as they were also used on the bonnets of TVRs. If the release cable snapped, or the latch got stuck, it was one of the worst jobs to fix. I took some photos of those on the Roadster which may help explain the problem to other interested TM'ers. The bowden cables stretch (just like they do on my old up-and-over garage doors). So together with wear on the pins and grit in the grease on the springs (or old crusty grease) they all contribute to too much stiction.You need a universal joint on every part of your anatomy to reach them, but since I adjusted and lubricated mine they have been fine.
Good luck with your parachute cords, but I'm sure eventually you will want to revert to OEM.