My GTA sat for 4 months recently outside under covers with no battery in it. I therefor had to pop the hatch with the key and kinda slam it down to shut it, you know because of the rubber stoppers near the top of the taillights.

I just got it back on the road now and my hatch pull down motor is freakin jackin around, lol.

If I use the key, it pops but the motor does not move. If I push the dash button, it only engages for a second. To open it using the motor I have to hold the dash button down while the motor goes up and then releases the hatch but even then the light only goes on for a second then back out again. To close it using the motor, I have to push the hatch down into the latch and then hold the dash button until the motor pulls the hatch all the way down and even then if I keep the button down it will start lifting the hatch back up!

WTF is going on? LOL. Any ideas please?

Thanks!

 

Well for one you NEVER slam the hatch to close it. It is NOT designed to close thar way, that is why its called a power hatch. My guess is when you slamed it closed you broke the plastic switch that contols the motor.
You will have to take it apart to see if that is the problem.

 

Thanks for pointing out the obvious but I don't think I slammed it THAT hard, lol. I mean you HAVE to use a little force when the motor is all the way down to get it to latch even.

I have had that plastic part break you mentioned but all that affected was the motor releasing the hatch as it approached the peak of it's hieght. The hatch releases just fine still so I thought this would be something else like a relay or something having to do with the dash button operation of it.

I guess I'll have to tear it appart and take a look...

 

just a guess but you may have a problam with the set of contacts that is just to the left of the latch try cleaning the contacts with sand paper then check for a broken wire just a guess feel free to tell me if im wrong maybe they are for the light i never really looked

 

Sorry, bad guess. His car doesn't even have that contact pad. That contact pad (if present) has absolutely nothing to do with the pull-down motor. In 1982-85 F-Bodies that contact pad was used to power the optional hatch wiper motor. On 1986-90 F-Bodies it was used to power the HMSL (high mount stop light) aka third brake light.

Back to the topic of repairing the 1991-92 pull-down unit. Take a look and see if the paddle on the striker-sensing switch has been broken. I have them available if you need one.

Lon Salgren
Top-Down Solutions