The hood latch has a cable that should have a knob just to the left and in front of the clutch pedal.  The cable went bad on our's and the replacement is a couple hundred bucks but it bothers me that the hood doesn't open or close right so I bought the new cable anyway.  The fuel priming issue is most likely the fuel lines coming from the tank like the other poster said, they will crack and suck air, usually it shows up when the fuel is cold and hard to suck.  The fuel tank has to be taken loose to change the lines but it's not a terrible job and they aren't terribly expensive.  When our lines went bad the tractor acted like it was gelled up but I could never get all the air bled out.