Steering wheel/hood clearance

[JH5070]

Does anyone have an idea of why the steering wheel on my 70 blocks the hood when lifted? I've heard other owners have the same issue, but have no idea why. The problem was solved by the previous owner by beating the steering wheel out of shape to make a flat spot for the hood to pass. I guess the steering shaft may be the problem. Does anyone else have this problem?
Thanks for your help.

[stevet]

the problem usually is that the grill housing has been pushed backwards, causing the hood to interfere with the steering wheel. Check that and see what it looks like....

[Paulf]

Jeff, it's probably not the correct way to fix it, but the easiest method is to use washers to tilt the grill housing forward. There's 4 bolts that hold the grill housing to the frame. Usually one washer between the frame and the grill housing for each of the back two bolts is enough to get the hood to tilt forward enough to clear the steering wheel. Of course, the "correct" way is to straighten the frame in the front but that always seemed like a lot more work to me.

[Klapatta]

Usually the front most one inch edge of the frame will be canted upward a bit this from the top of the grille shell striking a tree or whatever. With the grille shell removed a pipe wrench and straight edge will make the repair easy.
Many folks don't bother removing the grille shell when removing the engine or doing clutch work, I myself find those repairs much easier with the grille out of the way.

[JH5070]

All good info, thanks guys. I will take a look at the grill this 4th of July weekend. Have a safe holiday!

[Jlaws]

My tool of choice for straightening the front edge of the frame is a 15" adjustable wrench along with a carpenters square to check for straightness after tweaking . I find that the front couple of inches of frame are usually pushed up and it doesn't take much effort to straighten it back down . But I'll admit that I've also used the washers under the back set of holes method also .