Hey... I have and 89 trans am with the trunk pull down assembly that does not work. I bought a used assmbley from a 89 iroc that worked fine. However when i bolted it up to my car it is not working the motor does not turn on when i close the trunk or anything. Im clueless to what the problem could be. I think it might be electrical but i dont know. Any suggestions would be greatly apprecieated!!!

 

Did you check the fuse? Take a test light or volt meter and make sure you have power on the red wire that plugs into the hatch pull down.

You can also take a battery charger and connect the positive to the power wire on the hatch pull down and the negative to the metal frame or ground wire to test it.

 

It could be as simple as dirt/corrosion on the contacts that have to touch to activate the motor.

When I bought my camaro, the guy told me that pull-down motor hasn't worked for quite some time. All I had to do was take some 220 (I think) grit sand paper and it started working. [and then I disassembled entire car bolt-by-bolt ]

 

If it still doesnt work try loosening the three bolts and pull the whole unit up and tighten it up......it might need to just be adjusted higher.....the latch may not be catching the hatch.

 

check teh hatch reversing switch and the motor, both of them were bad when i bought my 87 iroc

 

mine broke where can i get a new one

 

I got mine from a junkyard for 20$.

 

was hoping to find a new one, but yea like you said man, guess i got to go to the ole' gold mine!

 

Yeah I bet a new one is probably pretty expense.

 

like $300 from TDS for an all new one

 

think that i will spend the 30$ for a used one from the junk yard

 

Mine did the same recently.
Cleaned all the connectors and grounds around the unit, now it works fine again!

 

fuse

 

If you look closely, it is more like $225 + $75 refundable core charge. And I pay for the core to be returned to me for a refund.

It is actually BETTER than a new one from GM, because it includes all the upgraded parts from TDS, (TDS aftermarket nylon guides and new style motor with reinforced motor housing). It also includes new striker-sensing switch, new reversing switch, new relay, new gear nut and a 1 year full replacement warranty (not pro-rated). When did GM offer that? Of course the individual parts and the hatch repair kits are also available if you want to do the repair using the instructions I include.

Lon Salgren
Top-Down Solutions

 

Were you able to get power to the red with white stripe wire yet? The fuse on a Firebird is an inline fuse adjacent to the fuse block.

Lon

 

there's no doubt you've got good stuff Lon, but alot of us don't have the money to drop on something like that.

 

the problem i have isn't that the motor don't work, it is that the plastic around the motor that connects it to the rails broke, and since it wasn't pulling the trunk down anymore, as soon as i hit a bump, it would loose contact with the contact plate and the motor was draining my battery from running all the freggin time.

 

Thanks for all the feedback! it turns out that i was missing the connection with the blue wire and also the in-line fuse was missing. It works awesome!

 

No problem. In most cases you won't need a re-manufactured hatch pull-down unit. That is why I also offer all the parts you'd need on an ala carte basis along with the detailed instructions.

Lon

 

What are you referring to when you mention a contact plate? I hope you're not referring to the contact pad that is on the drivers side of the hatch pull-down unit. That contact pad has nothing to do with the hatch pull-down unit. On 1982-86 cars that pad was used to power the optional rear hatch wiper motor. On 1987-90 cars it was used to power the HMSL (high mount stop light). The striker-sensing switch which is mounted just in front of the latch controls the start of the hatch motor cycle either up or down.

The clear plastic part that the motor slips into is called the motor housing. I reinforce these where the 3 screws mount it to the frame. It is sold as TDS p/n 103121 Reinforced Motor Housing.

Lon

 

dude that is freggin great, i guess next payday i am gonna hit you up on one of them. i am tired of hitting a bump and the hatch raising about a inch and then slamming down cause there is nothing keeping tension on it!