I am in the process of aligning my rear hatch. It sticks out about 1/2" on both sides. I have read the tech article and done some searches, but there's only one thing I can't figure out. Which 13mm nuts do you remove, the ones under the plastic cover on the hatch or the ones under the rear headliner cover thing? I can't figure out which ones everyone's talking about. Thank you for any help.

 

loosen the four nuts that are on the hinges....on the glass side. If you open up the hatch, you will see them at the top of the glass, you don't need to remove anything to get to them.

 

Thanks for the help. That's all I needed to know.

 

You might find that you are not going to get enough adjustment at the hinge, as I found out, you'll have to adjust the metal body panel that is mounted to the hatch glass.

This takes a little doing, but is well worth the effort, as I did this on my brothers 91.

Just take your time, and have some help, as the hatch gets real heavy when the struts are removed. Good Luck.

 

Also be sure that you have some one helping you hold that glass hatch or you will be crying a sad song of broken hatch glass.

 

Thanks for the help everybody. I'm going to try adjust it tomorrow where you suggested, 1tinindian, because just like you said, it wasn't enough.

 

How does one go about adjusting the metal body panel portion that 1tinindian mentioned?

 

Also before you try to adjust at the nuts under the trim piece at the rear of the headliner, make sure you take off the lift supports at the glass. Otherwise they will be working against you.

 

To adjust that piece, (don't forget a friend to help!) just remove the plastic piece towards the rear of the hatch (4 screws), then remove the side runner things that holds the metal trim piece that runs all around the edge of the hatch glass (2 screws on each side). Remove the hatch struts from the hatch (1 bolt on each side, and have a friend help you hold it cuz' it's pretty heavy). After you do this, you will see 8 13mm nuts that were under the plastic piece. With the hatch glass supported, loosen the 8 13mm nuts until they are pretty loose. Now you should be able to slide the rear body panel part attached to the hatch glass in and out a little. Adjust it to where you want it, tighten down the nuts, tighten down the hatch metal trim piece, put the hatch struts back on, and test it. If it's good, just put the plastic piece back on and your done, if it's still off, repeat the steps until it's right. It took me some time to get it right (it's still not exactly right to be honest, previous owners wrecked it too many times ), but it's well worth it.

I can go into more detail if necessary, just let me know. And, good luck!

 

You mentioned "support the hatch glass". Can you elaborate a little on this? By loosening that rear metal piece you're going to align, does that loosen the glass as well?

 

Yes, that metal piece that you loosen is what holds the hatch glass to the body panel. The best way to support the hatch glass is to have a friend or two to hold the glass on the side(s), so that you can work on adjusting it while they hold the glass up so that you have enough room to adjust it.

I'll be honest, I didn't have any friends or family available so I just put a whole bunch of pillows on the sides of the hatch glass. This way, the whole hatch is supported by the pillows, and is raised up enough to where you can still loosen and adjust the 8 13mm nuts. Is this making any sense?

 

Uh, I guess I'm just a slow old Phart, but no.

Are you saying you just put a bunch of pillows between the sides of the hatch and the lower body (like over the rear wheels) and just piled them up high enough to be able to see under the slightly open hatch to get to the 13mm nuts?

 

Yes, exactly.

 

What do you guys do if the nuts spin inside the plastic that is in the rear hatch glass? Are there replacements available, I can't find any so far?

I think I need to adjust both the front and rear on mine as well. The paint is about done, just some buffing and reassembly, minor tweaks and i'll post all the pics I took during the process.




Thanks,
Jim