i got a 87 firebird and my trunk wont open... i can put the key in but it will no longer turn. has this happened to anyone b4? any suggestions to get it open? thanks

 

Could be a couple of things

The lock/key may be worn out, or the lock barrel may have detatched itself from the mechanism.

You should be able to climb in the back and remove the plastic panel covering the mechanism, and manually pull the cable to open it. Then you can see what's going on.

Si

 

okay i cant take the plastic all the way off beause its attached at the top when the trunk locks so im trying to reach back there blindly... any idea where the cord that i should pull is located?

 

That plastic panal should (although i haven't looked really closely at mine) have a seperation at the back of the bit that goes around the latch and if you just pull at the top and maybe get your hand back there to push one of the tabs up you should be able to pull it out. the cable though should be on the left hand side if you are faceing out the back hatch and towards the top running from the lock down to something (haven't looked real hard).

 

an electric grinding wheel will make the hatch latch internals accessible.

new plastic trim pieces are cheap and plentiful at the wrecking yards.

 

Yes you'll have to destroy the plastic panel to get to the latch mechanism and the cable. The 2 screws attaching it from the top won't be accessible unless you open the hatch. As previously mentioned, the plastic prongs attaching to the back side of the key cylinder may have broken. Another possibility is the 10mm screw holding it to the latch mechanism may have fallen out. Or the cable itself may have broken. You can pick up everything you need from a Pick-a-Part. I also have a few used solenoid and manual hatch release units in stock. I can e-mail you pictures of waht to look for if you want. Lon

 

I've had this happen, and I successfully unlatched it! my key never worked, and the electric pop went... I had to crawl all 210 pounds of my fat body back in that little hole, pull up the plastic panel, hold it up far enough, which is really hard (so hard it made my zit pop :P)! take off the electric thingy, and with a flathead screwdriver, stabbed the heck out of it, poked and prodded, and finally got the thing open. mind you, it sucks! I dont remember what I pushed on, but if you can see the whole mechanism, you will get it. in any event, if the lock is bad, why not just drill it out???? then all you need is to get a matched lock. from there it would be easy, all you need is a flat screwdriver about 7 inches long.

 

If you have the electric hatch release it may have not went down all the way.Mine does that and all I do is push down a little on the hatch and turn the key.This may also work if you just have the regular lock release.

 

hey thanks that was the problem. my dad fixed it by accident actually by pushing it down

 

glad to have helped.