I popped the hatch so I could place some things in the back, completely forgetting the car doesnt have any wiring done yet. So basically my hatch motor is stucked in the "engaged" mode, meaning the motor is pulled down and I can't close the hatch because it still believes it is closed. How do I get this motor to...I dont know whats the word I'm looking for...move up? lol. Help appreciated! It's starting to rain!

remove the plastic panel covering the motor and you should be able to see the pull down motor, if you get a screwdriver and stick it into the latch where the hatch catch should be and press down on the mechanism and turn the harch key, you can get the hatch motor to open back up (only if the hatch motor has power if not i have no idea). ive had this happen to me before and it was nerveracking the first time because i had no clue how these things worked and thought i f-ed up my car

I don't have power though

find the wires going to the motor and jump 12V and groung to them from a car battery, I think that should work.

You don't need it to move up, just open a door to relieve the air pressure inside the car and slam the hatch.

Doesnt work. The part where the hatch latches shut is sucked down, as if it still believes it is closed.

yes, the same position it was in when you decided to open it from the closed position.. it can again reach the latch ;0

I know what your talking about...if you press it close it just bounces on the bottom latch...right? When mine craped out and screwing around with it it was in the same position that it would not let you close i finally messed with it and it opened again..You will have to get power to it somehow just to get it to unrelease...THEN you can slam it close and manually unlock it with the key to slam it closed again and so on.

Try with a flathead...you maybe able to unlatch it

You're not slamming it hard enough. In the down position with no power, the hatch works exactly like it did on the earlier cars before that ridiculously fragile hatch motor was introduced.

find the switch on the hatch lift motor... it looks like the one pictured below. FLip the switch on the switch to actuate its motion.

Why don't u just get power to it ?, I 've done it too and I could never get it to close by slamming the hatch closed. What wiring is missing?

That's happened to me before, and I just took the panel off to expose the motor, got a screwdriver in there, and slowly forced it up. Didn't take that much force, either.

Un-plug the blue wire from the red/white stripe wire. Jumper +12v to that blue wire to power the hatch pull-down motor. It should raise back up.

Lon

Doesnt work, sorry.

Thanks everyone, I'm going to try giving it some juice tomorrow. Should I use a car battery? Smaller?

It works on my 88. Maybe you need to eat your Wheaties.

Strength has nothing to do with it. I have slammed the holy hell out of this thing, it aint closing any time soon by strength alone.

I have a similar problem caused when closing on a cardboard box. I think the motor "stalled out". There must be a fuse somewhere... but where??

John P: in your case the hatch motor needs to just be re-set. Reac inside the hole and press on the striker-sensing switch (it is a small black paddle just in front of the latch). Hold that switch down and it will power down the rest of the way. Then release the switch and the unit will cycle up and be re-set. The unit powers down ONLY while that switch is being depressed. If it turns out you have no power, the fuse on a Camaro is a 15 amp in the #3 slot (top row, third column from the left). On Firebird it is a 15 amp fuse that is attahed to the side of the fuse block.

Lon

sorry, but I didn't read every post, maybe this has been brought up.

...if the latch is closed, you can open it with a screwdriver. It'll "click" and stay open.

My motor went completely dead once. I moved the latch mechanism all the way up by hand. Then I just closed the hatch like normal, and opened it with the key like normal. Of course, it didn't pull the hatch down and seal it against the weatherstripping since the motor was dead, but it was fully locked and didn't open. I just sat a little high. It was a perfectly good temporary fix.

It's not closed though, its open and this car is a project so I still dont have in the ecm and engine harnesses, therefore there is no power going to the car.

Where exactly do I hook up the battery to? I saw a connector near the motor that I believe had 2 wires on it, a black and a yellow, but I believe it was a 4 prong female.

If it's open, and you can't get it to close when you shut the hatch, you have one of two problems.
---First, the actual mechanism is stuck "down". With no power you'll need to manually move it up high enough so it can grab the hook on the hatch. You don't need to hook up power, although that might work. Just get in there and move it by hand.
---Second, the latch is broken, although that doesn't seem to be the case.

This has happened to me on my 89 IROC-Z. The hatch motor had power but the motor went out while in the down position. I was still able to close the hatch by slamming it, but I didnt like the idea of slamming it all the time. This car didnt have hatch struts so it was really easy to slam it, maybe unhooking your hatch struts will make it easier? I dunno, but anyway, there are a few different versions of the hatch motor, so your experiences may be different from other people. The one I had on my IROC-Z allowed access to the plastic gear that moves the locking mechanism up and down on that rail. The gear was located under the latching mechanism by the motor itself. The gear was clear and made out of plastic. Usually the hatch motor is what turns that gear. I used a flat head screwdriver to move the gear manually and move the locking mechanism up until the hatch closed. Like someone already said, its a good temporary fix but be prepared to hear some rattles. If you really need it to close flush with a broken motor you can do it the way I've described, then when the hatch is closed get into the car and manually turn that gear again to bring it down. Kind of a tight fit when you try to do that one (I'm a big guy I almost got stuck hahaha).

just fixed my stuck open hatch as well, all it need was a slam to shut it, now everything works fine. I think the battery was dissconnected when the hatch was up.

We run a garage, and that "slamming" the hatch is the best way to break the hatch motor. Don't ever slam the hatch if it doesn't close! And holy crap don't slam it if the motor's in the "down" position!

i ran into this problem the other day fixing a friends 91...

The hatch itself became so far off alignment, that the rod the hatch locks with, was way too far back and would not even hit the locking mechanism... Since we didn't have tme to remove the deck lid to realign, i simply unbolted the rod, and flipped it around to point in the opposite direction. Locked instantly...

Is anyone reading my initial question? Slamming it will not solve anything, where do I give this baby power? What connector am I lookin for?

assumeing ya have the harness with relay there but just not power run back to it yet....on my 90 there is a blu wire (batt + )and a blk wire (batt -) those are the 2 wires i used to supply power to the motor assembly.Since the hatch's hook isn't in the motor it should go to up position seeking the hatch catch.I used those 2 wires with a 18 volt cordless drill batt at the salvage yard to test the assembly b4 purchase.You might be able to use a 9 volt but kinda doubt it.As for soursein thepower just grab some old junk speaker wire and pop the hood.Tap the batt posts and try ta remember when ya get to the back the car which one is + and which is -.Or if ya have an old plug into the lighter toy use the cord just remember polarity.Hope it helps.
P.S. is ya need it i have posted pics in another thread askin a similar question just hollar if ya need them or search for it under the lists if my posts.Again hope this helps......Bill

hey Morder??Did ya get it fixxed??

I havent had time to look at it until today, I shall find out!

You shouldn't need power. Using a screwdriver you can open the locking mechanism up and then you will be able to close it like a regular trunk.

Is this something all Camaros after a certain year have? If so I am quite sure mine is broken. :/ This pulls down on the hatch instead of having to close it manually?

Yea it pulls the hatch the last inch or so down.Ya close till it engages and then it snuggs the hatch down tight.The mounts are different but ya can retro fit if ya wanna do the work.It wouldn't suprize me to find some model caddies have a trunk mechanism simular that could be fit into the non motorized latch hold down areas.It works real well as long as ya don slam the hatch.Which tends to tear up the assembly.

I don't think the convertables have the pull down.