Leverage
Yesterday, it finally warmed up sufficiently for Lisa to be able to work on completing the repair to the Astro's hood-release lever. Although the new lever-cable assembly works, the damage to the instrument-panel trim that went with the old lever was such that it was tricky to make it work. If you pulled on the handle in the ordinary way, nothing would happen because the new lever didn't have enough purchase on the panel trim. So Lisa fixed it.
Using some of the bits of metal we have on hand left over from other projects, Lisa fashioned a small plate that she could fasten to the instrument-panel trim to hold the hood-release lever firmly in place.
With the new bracket holding the hood-release lever in place, you don't need special instructions to open the hood. Just pulling on the lever will release the latch. Inasmuch as not long from now we're going to need to take the van to have the air conditioning serviced, it's important that the mechanics can operate things without too much fussing over things like "be careful how you operate the hood-release latch."
Using some of the bits of metal we have on hand left over from other projects, Lisa fashioned a small plate that she could fasten to the instrument-panel trim to hold the hood-release lever firmly in place.
With the new bracket holding the hood-release lever in place, you don't need special instructions to open the hood. Just pulling on the lever will release the latch. Inasmuch as not long from now we're going to need to take the van to have the air conditioning serviced, it's important that the mechanics can operate things without too much fussing over things like "be careful how you operate the hood-release latch."