heather_52584

my trunk latch on my bird is really loose. you can pull it up a good inch or two when its looked. it bounces a lot on the dirt roads. sometimes when i press the button to pop the trunk, it wont open, then i try the key.... and it still wont open. it does this about once or twice a week. just wondering if there is any way i can fix this problem. something that i need to replace? something that i need to tighten up? i really want this fixed as soon as possible. i hate those mornings when it wont open and i have to crawl through my car and in the trunk to get my books for college!

lonsal

iTrader: (2)

Yes. What you described can be caused by two things. It sounds as if a clear plastic part called the "motor housing" is broken. The fact that you can pull up/down on the latch tells me that that part has broken where the 3 screws attach it to the fame of the hach pull-down unit. Another thing to look at is the guides. There are 8 small white plastic guides on the 1986-87 units and 4 larger guides on the 1988-91 units. The 86-87 guides were more robust. The re-design to 4 guides was a disaster. They used less than half the amount of plastic than the prior version and very prone to crackin and disintegrating. Broken guides will cause a loose feeling to the latch. You can grab the latch an try moving it forward and back and up/down. You've already indicated it moves up and down. The latch on a good hatch pull-down unit shuld have very little if any play in either the up and down or forward and back directions. If it moves foward and back, but little movement up and down,then the guides need to be replaced. If it moves up and down, but not much forward and back, then the motor housing is broken as I previously described. If you get mvment in both directions then I'd suspect both the guides and motor housng are bad.

I sell both items through my web site. The TDS 101170 aftermarket guides are machined from solid nylon and much stronger than the OEM ones. The TDS 103121 reinforced motor housing is reinforced by me with several pieces of aluminum and epoxy where it connects to the frame with 3 screws. Your motor slips into a slot molded into that plastic motor housing. The instructions that come with the guides explains how to rebuild your 1986-91 hatch pull-down unit. You can download the instructions from my web site. Don't remove the two small phillips-head screws that hold the metal cover on the motor. You'll have a heck of a time getting the brushes back in without damaging them.

I hope this helps.

Lon Salgren
Top-Down Solutions