I've been lurking a while, trying to find my answer and I did. I couldn't get the hood to latch on the Driver's side - I found a lot of ppl replace the hood latch itself and they probably don't need to.

You can also use PB Blaster / WD40 as some indicated on the mechanism that pulls the latches open, and that does help. The ultimate goal is getting the pivoting mechanism that controls both linkage to go back to original place (pushing the hood release cable handle allll the way in from the interior and then making sure the pivoting piece mounted to the underneath side of the hood is swing all the way forward. *this* piece is just beneath what you can see when you're looking up at the hood (when popped). I had to tap mine with a wrench and could visibly see the piece spinning back to where it is suppose to go... BOOM - hood shut like a charm. It's difficult to explain, but I hope this helps someone...

Now - after I figured this out, I had to pop the hood again to jump another vehicle and pulls my fuggin cable too hard, thus it pulls about 4 ft. of cable out = broke. My question now is, how the hell do I open the hood? I couldn't find a manual release through the grille or anything..

Annoying! Thanks in advance.
It's a 2000 Cherokee Sport 4x4.

 

I can tell you you have to remove the headlights, but thats about all I can remember. Im sure someone on here will be able to help you more than I can...
My cable broke too, but I was lucky and it broke right after the rod in the release handle. I jsut broke all the plastic at the end of teh cable and now I use channel locks to grab the end of the cable and open the hood...

 

Someone??

 

That happened to me 2 days ago, right before this happened.

 

BUMP - Anyone know how to open the hood? The search function doesn't yield much..

 

http://comancheclub.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=872

 

Ok...for all of you wonderful people, here is a semi-definitive, completely amateur compendium of what to do on an older Jeep XJ when:
a) the hood release comed off in your hand
b) you then cannot get the hood open
c) if you get the hood open and need to latch the hood before replacing the hood release handle and cable.
Yes, yes, my friends, it all happened to me just like that. The pivoting bracket is the main culprit as it is made of a poor choice of metal that corrodes. Free it up when you can get to it and spray it with WD-40 regularly. The cable can also bind internally but if you work it by opening/latching hood..it should allow you have function until you can replace it.
Replacement hood release and cable can be had from Quadratec for $17. I will need to replace it and will as I have the part, but in the mean time to get temporary function of the hood latch/release:

Detach plastic kick plate over hood release (3 screws)
Detach hood release guide bracket (3 torx screws)
At the end of the black plastic, try and work it loose from the cable...this worked for me without having to break the plastic part( which is now toast anyway) If you can grab hold of the steel cable with a pair of vice grips and while holding the black part of the cable firmly in your hands...you may be able to 1) free up the steel cable from binding by pulling the cable with your vice grips 2) work it enough to release the latch. Immediately douse that central pivoting bracket with at least WD-40, and might as well spray the latches too. I need to replace that central pivoting bracket as it is quite corroded but it requires a rivet gun so that'll wait for another time.

This will prevent you from all the unpleasant diatribe(cussin) trying to get to the steel rods that actually release the latches through various methods involving body work and a whole lot of hunting and pecking. Obviously if the cable is bound internally or the latchs or pivot are too corroded, the method I describe may not go as smoothly(sarcasm)