Bonnet catch drama

[almcl]

Thought I would recount this little piece of excitement.

Accelerating down the slip road on to our local motorway the evening before last, the bonnet flew open and was retained by the safety catch.

I pulled over to investigate and found that the release handle was still in the shut position and that the Bowden cable leading from it was not apparently attached to anything.

Neither I, nor a fellow enthusiast who stopped to help, could see where the cable was supposed to be attached, so I turned around and went slowly home.

A few minutes study of the manuals, a quick wipe of the grease with a cloth and it became apparent that the soldered nipple had parted company from the cable end where it is attached on the back of the left hand catch.

A few minutes later and both offending parts were on the bench. Overnight it occurred to me that I had some spare cables from bicycling days and that one of these could be 'adapted' to do duty.

Two days on and this cycle shop repair seems to be holding up fine.

Now the confession. I had noticed that the trailing edge of the bonnet was fluttering in the breeze a bit more than usual just lately. If I'd investigated this a bit sooner, I might have saved the embarrassment...