Hood now stays open but misaligned

[Paulaner]

Hello again...sorry in advance for another nube question, but I just replaced my hood spring support brackets, but my hood is now a little misaligned, slightly cockeyed to the left toward the passenger side. Any recommendations on realigning the gaps?
I'v been dicking with the positioning of bracing arms for the last couple hours and can't figure it out.

I did not remove the entire hood during the parts swap so the two main hinges at the front were never touched.

 

[eriknetherlands]

Such a shift isn't strange without touching the front hinges; just a hair's of play in those hinges already gives such misalignment 4 feet away, on the other side of the continent we call "Hood".

Seeing the larger gap on the driver's side, would lead me to believe that the hood is pushed to the opposite side by the Left side hinge arm being connected to far rearward (towards the front window)
Or, likewise, the hood is pulled (not pushed) to the passenger side as the right side hinge arm is connected to far to the front of the car.

Which bolt to adjust would be visible when looking at the gap at the front; that's likely skewed as well now, but the gap should be about 6-8 mm or so (tech manual has the values, I'm not 100%sure).
Thus, if you're seeing 4mm near the leading edge hinge driver side, and 10mm on the leading edge hinge pass side, then both arms need adjustment, drivers side a 'tad' back, and passenger side same 'tad' forward.

Now looking at your pics, I see that moving the left bolt on the fender further forward isn't possible; it's already maxed out.
It means that the right side is to far forwards. I'd set the right side a tad more backwards, and see if it helps.

If the gap at the leading edge gets parallel, but too large, then you could possibly slide both L and R a tad towards the rear.

Sticking a temporary tape with distance marks on the fender bracket will help you understand what's going on. There's quite a bit of force, you may see that the bolt on the fender slides if not tightened well. If that happens it'll be in the last inchea of closing the hood: you can't see it sliding when it happens, but you can now spot that it happened after opening the hood again.
I'm guessing here, but the shape of the hood and the locations of the leading edge hinges give me the feeling that moving the bolt on the fender 1 increment, will enlarge/decrease the side gap near the windscreen/grille by ~3 times that incement. So be gentle, and accurate in your adjustments.

Oh, and do all this without the hood catches used. Only if the hood sits right, then start the same fuss with those catches

 

[bavbob]

I noticed that the paint deposit on the base of the right arm is off, does re-adjusting the right arm so the washer overlaps the non-painted area help? Hood looks like it is a bit forward on the right so sliding it back a bit?

 

[eriknetherlands]

yeah should help indeed. Reading back what i wrote in post #2, I got it backwards. The pic in your last post is right side of the car, so moving that one to the window will push the gaps back to (about) parallel. I'll correct post #2.

 

[HB Chris]

It is also pretty easy to loosen two of the three bolts on the hinge to act as a pivot and then loosen the other side to move the hood a tiny bit.

 

[Paulaner]

I noticed that the paint deposit on the base of the right arm is off, does re-adjusting the right arm so the washer overlaps the non-painted area help? Hood looks like it is a bit forward on the right so sliding iView attachment 208268

@bavbob overlapping the painted section was my staring point after reassembly but it wasn't quite right. The current position in the pics posted was after many attempts to adjust.

@eriknetherlands - appreciate the details provided and recommendations for alignment. I'll report back after trying one or more of your suggestions.

 

[Paulaner]

@eriknetherlands - you are a genius. I only adjusted the driver's side one back and kept the passenger side alone. It pulled the hood back into acceptable range. I think my problem was that I was trying to make both sides equivalent on their respective adjustment bracket and was getting nowhere. Crisis averted and with a quick fix. Thank you those that offer some help.

 

[eriknetherlands]

Ooh, nice crisp panel gaps!
Happy to help.

 

[Ohmess]

@eriknetherlands - you are a genius. I only adjusted the driver's side one back and kept the passenger side alone. It pulled the hood back into acceptable range. I think my problem was that I was trying to make both sides equivalent on their respective adjustment bracket and was getting nowhere. Crisis averted and with a quick fix. Thank you those that offer some help.

Those gaps are excellent! Some of the best I have seen.