Ok, I just bought my bro's 89 Formula 350 - Its in really good shape, florida car so no rust... ok anyways my question is what is the non-powered hatch latch supposed to look like, I had the rear plastic panel off and i was just cleaning up some stuff on the car and noticed that the latch assembly looks like it could have had an electric pull down but none of the electrical connectors are there and to my knowledge this part of the car hasnt been messed with.... my brother only has driven the car 5,000 miles and now its mine so the fixing begins. Not much wrong with the car it just needs small things, like the botch job wiring on the fans - (someone screwed with it when it was in florida "prev owner, not brother he just drove it and changed oil") and it needs a radio pod (plastic tabs broken) anyways if someone has a picture of the non-pulldown assembly it would be much appreciated. Thank You!

 

Actually, I believe all models by 1989 had the rear pull down assembly. Maybe it broke and someone put in the non pull down assembly from a I think 1982 - 1984 models? Basically the non power ones are only a latch bolted to the body. The pull downs look like they have guides or something. Perhaps you can post a pic?

 

Your car has a power hatch pull-down motor. Check the Tech Article I wrote on how to repair it. Also all the parts to repair it are available from my web site. Just ckick on the TDS web site sponsor link at the top of the page.

Lon Salgren
Top-Down Solutions

 

Heres the pictures, I knew the Latch didnt look right, the "sliders" are brazed as you can see, but the only question I have now is where is the wiring for the pulldown unit, there are no extra wires that i can find.... well anyway, here are the pictures...








I hope that someone didnt "rip" the wiring out!? That would be for sure! Other than that I really love this car!

 

Missing items: motor, motor housing, bearing, wave spring, gear nut, reversing switch, phillips-head screw, lift rod, bolt & push nut,strike-sensing switch, relay, 5 screws, hex washer-head screw, guides. Also the latch portion has been welded to the frame, so it has $0 value as a core.

Sell that one to someone that wants to convert their pull-down unit to a slam latch and buy a complete hatch pull-down unit you can rebuild or send in as a core for a re-manufactured one.

Lon

 

I do plan on making it the pull down once, I fix some other items on the car, but... where is the power wiring for the pull down unit supposed to be located? Thanks! By the way how much would a complete good working unit cost? This isnt a show car so new is not needed, would be nice, if the price was right.... Thanks again, any info on the wiring would be much appreciated.

 

That red with white stripe wire isn't supposed to be plugged into that brown wire. It is suposed to plug into the blue wire of the hatch pull-down motor wiring loom (which is part of the striker-sensing switch). The red with white stripe wire is +12v constant. Then you connect the ground wire of the hatch pull-down wiring loom to the ground location on the body below where the pull-down unit mounts.

Lon

 

Thanks Lon for the info, i unplugged them from each other, it didint seem right... stupid previous owners are idiots for not getting it fixed! Thanks again.