I started to raise the hood on my B2601 (with approximately 540 hrs. on the clock) and the hood jammed part of the way up. When I put a little more pressure on it the hood finally raised. However, it would not lock in the raised position as normal. I noticed that the hood support rod bracket had fallen off of the underside of the hood. Also, over time engine vibration had worn a notch in the rod where it goes through the guide slot in the bracket mounted to the top of the engine. The notch in the rod caused it to bind in the guide slot which made the hood difficult to raise. The binding of the rod put enough force on the hood bracket causing it to bend and the double-sided tape failed allowing the assembly to fall. The double-sided tape was not totally bonded to the underside of the hood as there was a lot of dirt between the tape and the hood in some areas. I contacted my dealer and found that my warranty ran out in February so I would have to pay for the repair. The service manager said he had never seen this problem before and there were no active service campaigns for this issue. Please keep an eye on your hood support rod to make sure a notch is not wearing into it. It can cause the hood rod to bind and cause the bracket to fall off and possibly allow the rod to get into the engine fan.
I made the repair myself. I cleaned off all the old double-sided tape adhesive from the bracket and the underside of the hood, bent the hood bracket back into its original shape, filed the notch smooth in the rod so it wouldn't bind, and applied new very-high-bond double-sided tape to the hood bracket. Also, be aware that the rod must be installed into the hood support bracket and routed through the guide slot in the bracket mounted to the top of the engine before the bracket is attached to the underside of the hood. If you don't attach and route the rod first before attaching the hood bracket, you will have to remove the hood from the tractor to install the support rod. (sorry for the long post)
