Cherokee 1998 hood latch won't open.cable frozen ?

On hood latch..where cable goes in..there is a hole there..trip it back..or take the 3 bolts away from latch

The cable is probably broken and not connected to the latch. There are two latches, a primary which the cable is connected, and the secondary or safety.
You'll have to try to access the latch from under the car going up between the bumper and the radiator. You may need a body shop to do it.

Raise hood,have some one go pull hood latch and you look at latch and see if it releases,if it doesn't then cable may need replacing,I would'nt completely shut hood cause you may not get back open,also check hood latches bolts and latch for something bent or broken.

try some wd40 and use a screw driver and work the latch might just be gunked up

the problem for me was an internal spring that was rusted and thus frozen. the quick fix is to pop off the small plastic cover in front of the latch and pack a lot of thick grease into the openings of the latch to reach the spring. worked for me

Hood latch or cable is frozen up (rusted). These can be a challenge to get fixed, because you don't have access. You can try to see if you have access through the front grille or go under the car and look up for the latch. Hopefully you can get to the latch and release it. My worst one was a mid 70s Corvette with the latch by the windshield (hood opens forward). This latch was above the cowl assembly and you had to work around the engine. Good luck...

since the door is open,, hold the handle in the open position and try and move the little hook looking latch , it may have just moved into the closed position , if you can move it to the open position, then your home free

because of safety dangers, it is very hard to open with out pulling the latch. you will have to take it to a body shop or dealer to have them fix the latch

Your hood latch probably isn't returning to the right position for it to catch. This is commonly caused by one of two problems: (1) too much hardened grease and crud on the latch itself is keeping it from operating freely; or (2) the hood release cable has gotten rusty or kinked over time and is no longer releasing completely.
I would suggest testing the hood release cable before doing anything else. It's an easy test and it only takes a minute. Enlist the help of a second person to pull the hood release lever while you look at the hood latch. When your helper pull on the release, you should see the cable pull part of the hood latch. When they let go, that part should swing back to its prior position. Using a long-shafted screwdriver, see whether you can "help" that moving part move any further on its return path. If you can push the latch any significant amount, it's not returning all the way to its proper position, and your hood release cable is probably binding.
In the short term, if you manually push the hood latch back into position, you should be able to close your hood again. However, you'll have to do this each time you open the hood. In addition, you run the risk that, not too far in the future, your hood release cable will actually completely bind or snap, and then you'll have a much harder time opening your hood to replace the cable (or do anything else, like add oil or washer fluid).

Hi Doug,

The hood release cable on my cherokee slipped out of its mount on the latch a while ago. Here's how I got the hood open to fix it.

You're going to need a set of long needlenose pliers and a flashlight.

Get in front of the car and shine the light through the grill. You're looking for the release cable where it attaches to the hood latch.

There will be an anchor point for the outer sleeve where the cable itself is exposed. Grab the cable with the needlenose and pull out and to the right. You'll be surprised at how easily it clicks open.

Best regards,
Mike