Thought this might be helpfull. The hood release latch on my 01 Disco was frozen. The cable was still good, pulled on it from inside the truck w/o luck and w/o pulling the wire through. Tried various methods described here and other boards w/o luck, Finelly was abe open the hood enough to get access to the two bolts that attach the pin plate to the hood, you need to pull the weather stripping aside. A long (7") 10mm combination wrench and 20 mins (1/16 turn at a time) was able to detach the pin plate from the hood and open it. Tomorrow Hood Pins!!!!