Hood Gap on the sides next to the headlights.

[98viperGTS]

I just got my Viper back from getting the timing chain cover gasket replaced. I looked at the hood and notice that the sides of the hood, where the bumper meets the hood on the side, don’t match. One side has the1/2 inch gap., and the other has 1/4 inch gap. I was looking at it and don’t know how to adjust this. I have adjusted the front latches but they don’t effect the side gap. Please any help.

 

[BACKNBLACK]

Thats normal. You can get it aligned or live with it

 

[98viperGTS]

yeah, I know that they are not perfect but when I brought the car to them it had 1/2 inch on both sides and It looked right. now I have 1/4 inch gap on one side. i just wanted to make it back to 1/2.

 

[98viperGTS]

PLEASE HELP!

 

[94RT10Ohio]

Did they remove the hood when working on the timing chain?

 

[98viperGTS]

Yeah, they stated that they did.

 

[Eric H]

there are the little rubber bumpers on each side of the hood near the latch, adjust those up and down.

Are you sure its closed all the way? I noticed the uneven gap on mine and realized the lock mechanism was sticking so i cleaned it up and greased them and now its good as new!

 

[94RT10Ohio]

Not likely it is the front rubber bumpers or latches. They removed the hood, the adjustment required will be in that area. The big question would be.... When it was removed was the hood removed from the hinge or the hinge from the car. Or if the hood was removed from the hinge did they loose or remove the hinge later while working on the engine.

 

[98viperGTS]

I don't know what procedure they used when they took the hood off. I do agree that must be the problem. Thanks for bringing that to my attetion I will have to take a look at the hinge and see if I notice anything.

Thanks

 

[Jay Herbert]

There are basically three sets of adjustment that affect the front of the hood:

1) Where the hinge is attached to the hood (If I remember right, this one only allows sisde to side adjustment when the bolts are loosened)

2) Where the hinge is attached to the frame (this one allows front and back, left and right, and basically all-around). When you loosen the bolts that attach the hinge to the frame, you'll see there is basically a hole in the hinge much larger than the bolt and the bolts have giant washers on them. This allows the hinges to move all over the place to line things up. It is a pain in the butt to get to all the bolts for this one....

3) The front bumpers near the front safety latches.

More than likely they took the hood of the hinge, then the hinge got in their way, so they took that off too. If I were to venture a guess, you'll need to tweek all three, but I'd start with raising or lowering the the bumpers as needed.

There are some adjustments at the back of the hood which affect the front, but there would have been no reason for them to mess with those.

 

[Steve Miehe]

How many miles do you have on your viper? Just curious as to how long the original timing chain lasted1

 

[98viperGTS]

I have almost 14K on her. The gasket failed after we went on a trip from VA to SC. I-95 had a traffic problem and we went 5 miles in 2 hours and when we goy home I found oil on the floor. I don't know if it had a problem before that but after the trip is when it came to a head.

 

[LETHAL GTS]

Can you see marks inside the where the hood mounts to the frame? Maybe if you could see where the hood was, you could put it back in the exact same spot. Just a thought. Maybe take it back to the dealer and have them adjust it correctly.