RJMcEachern

Hello everyone. I have an 87 GTA 5.7L Automatic Trans. Today while at the car wash only to vacuum the interior the hatch pull down worked as it always has. When I get home I open up the hatch and all of a sudden the hatch pull down doesnt work. The hatch release works fine, but the pull down or release to open (though for the time being it is permanently open) does not function. The FSM is very light on testing this, battery voltage to the RED/WHT wire, if good replace pull down unit.

I have cleaned the contacts on the hatch (both sides) with emery cloth, if I ground the brown? wire the relay does click, at the relay I have 12v to the double blue wires going to the relay...

Anyone have some additional diagnostics to perform to validate it is either the relay or the pull down motor? I don't want to just go buy parts without further testing the relay and/or pull down motor.

Any help is greatly appreciated. I have searched and performed various other "tests", but nothing conclusive to say "AHA, this is the failed part"

RJMcEachern

NINÅ

RJMcEachern

Thanks NINA!

I got the hatch to close finally by slamming the hatch down. It does release and operate as normal now, my concern is that all looks ok, it just appears to have "jammed" this one time on me. All appears normal, the nylon bushings look ok, no broken wires or cables, the keyed lock is frozen in place in the closed position, I have been spraying some PB Blaster in it on a regular basis hoping to get it to work, no luck yet.

So it would appear it was only a random jamming of the hatch slide that occurred. Hope it is not an early sign of imminent failure.

RJMcEachern

Joe Tag

iTrader: (4)

Slamming the hatch is a death sentence for the pulldown assembly. The housing is a brittle plastic that often shatters from just that. I gently lower the hatch and push it down to latch. The pulldown takes over from there. Are your hatch struts worn out? What happens when they are is the hatch doesn't raise far enough when released and gets stuck mid cycle when the switch hits the latch loop on the way up, then starts going back down until the switch is not in contact with the loop. The fix is to hold the switch in as if the hatch is latched until the unit cycles all the way down, then release the switch and it will cycle back up.

RJMcEachern

I agree, slamming it closed was not an ideal situation. It was more of a last resort. I normally just ower it and it engages the motor and draws the hatch down. for whatever reason this time when I released it and raised it, then went to close it it again it appeared the hatch was already in the down position and no amount of pushing the button on the dash would allow it to release from it's down position.

RJMcEachern

Joe Tag

iTrader: (4)

The switch I'm talking about is not the hatch release switch. It is a small lever in the latch assembly that signals to the pulldown assembly whether the hatch is closed or open. It is on the left side of the latch, to the rear of the latch pawl in the area the hatch loop would contact when closed.

RJMcEachern

do you have a pic of this? I can check it when I get home tonight.

Thanks!

RJMcEachern

Joe Tag

iTrader: (4)

Nothing to check while it isn't acting up. But while the hatch is open you can hold it in and release it before it completes the cycle and see that it will not go back up until you hold it in again and let the cycle complete. Just so you can understand what is happening. There is a reversing switch that does not change the direction of the assembly until the former cycle completes.