'79 Spider trunk cable broken - solved

["sandi_ego" <sandi_ego@domain.elided>]

For those curious,

You may recall my post about the broken trunk cable on my '79 Spider (V9
#207). Today, I got it open.

Here's what I did. Took off the license plate and, using a 1/4 inch drill bit,
poked a hole through the plate and the body metal about four inches below the
lip of the trunk and centered. Then I blindly fished around in it with a wire
coat hanger. I could tell I was hitting what sounded like a spring, but I
could not get anything to move.

So I came to the conclusion I had drilled too low. I drilled another hole
(yes) 1/2 inch down from the top edge of the license plate and into the body
metal. Now I used a very thin screw driver to poke around inside the new hole.
After awhile, I tripped the lever and the trunk lid popped open.

The trunk cable attaches to the bottom of the lever in the same hole that the
spring does. The spring pulls the lever to the right and the cable pulls to
the left. The cable goes through the hole and is bent back (looped) and
secured with a metal ring with a screw for tightening down. My cable had worn
and was broken at the end of the loop where it attaches to the lever.
Replacing the cable is all it needs now (plus two rubber grommets to cover the
two holes I drilled).

Once inside, I realized there is a 1/2 inch wide hole (for drainage?) at the
bottom of the area where the lock sits. If you look straight down and past the
lock mechanism, you will see street through the drainage hole. Had I known
about this hole, I could have crawled under the rear and, with a long and
strong stick or screw driver, I could have tripped the lock that way. However,
I didn't know of it, nor did I remember just how the lock gets tripped.

Thank you Stan and Skippatnode for your replies and suggestions.

I think I'll go test drive that Mini Cooper...

George
Oceanside, CA
'79 Spider, '87 Milano Gold
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided