Hood latch problems...
 

Roughly a year ago when I changed my oil out I yanked the Hood lever too hard and the wire went out more than it should of along with the actual plastic piece breaking off. I have to use pliers to get it to open and if I want to close it I have to push the wire back in.

Just today I was changing out my oil and tried to do the same thing accept that even when I push the wire in it still doesn't latch all the way down. I'm thinking that the wire is loose because I can tug on it more than usual so is there a quick fix for this because I don't want to pay for a whole new hood latch assembly.

If I have to how much was the whole setup cost?

EDIT My car is a 1998 Honda Civic LX Sedan.

take a screwdriver and reset the hood relase latch. If you take a flashlight and look down in the latch you will see a little lever that the release wire attaches to. Take a screw driver and flick it over.

I'll give that a try soon enough.

There's also a lot of small black goo deposits all over the hood latch too -- what can I use to get rid of all of it?

pb blaster.

The return spring of the front latch has one side completely bent out of shape so it looks like I might as well buy a whole new assembly at this rate; what's the general price range on a hood latch assembly at a junk yard?

I'm going to have to take off the grill, front bumper, and the hood latch assembly so I might as well bite the bullet and replace all of it sans the cable line.