Long story made short. Last week a 13 year old kid rear ended my 88 IROC at a stop light. His 2nd accident in 2 months. No license (duh) no insurance, car owned by someone that hired his dad to transport the vehicle. At least the kid got a $1672 ticket.

The collision split my rear bumper /caused $1100 damage. A couple days after the collision I open up the rear hatch (first time since wreck) and when I closed the hatch and it latches but does not pull down. I pulled the cover and found that the motor was very very very hot and starting to smoke. I unplugged the motor.

There doesn't appear to be any visual damage to the mechanisim.

Could an impact cause this malfunction or is it just a coincidence?

Thanks
Ken

 

Yes. I suspect the rear end collision bent the frame of the hatch pull-down unit. Use the repair instructions from my web site to remove and diagnose it. Check the nylon guide tracks of the frame portion on a flat surface. Also check the same part on the latch assy. You can try straightening it in a bench vise. Check for any other broken parts while you have it apart. I sell all the parts you'll need to repair it on my web site. Or if you're all thumbs, I also sell remanufactured units which have a 1-yr warranty.

Lon Salgren
Top-Down Solutions

 

Thank you for the reply.

What is the difference between the 87 and the 88 latch?

The body shop said they located a used unit but I want to make sure they have the correct one. If it's not the right one, I would prefer a remanufactured unit.

 

1986-87 & 1988-91 hatch pull-down units are functionally identical. There were minor differences in construction, the ONLY one that matters slightly (and my reason for even distinguishing between the two) is the connector on the blue wire. 1986-87 units have a large white conector. 1988-91 have a smaller black connector on that wire. In both cases this is the wire that connects to the +12v power source for the unit. For 1989 or 90 they started connecting the white wire to a black with orange stripe wire to turn on/off the hatch light. On yours the hatch light is operated by a manual switch and that white wire connects to nothing.

Lon

 

You have been a big help.

Thank you for your time.
Ken