I pulled my car out of the garage tonight to change the oil before a trip through the mountains tomorrow with some friends...

The power trunk release worked fine to release the hatch, but when I went to shut it, it did NOTHING. IIRC, the power for it is tied into the door locks, and they still work.

Is there any way to manually shut/close the hatch if the motor has become fubar'd?

HELP!

 

Unfortunately there isn't a way to manually close it. I've been in the exact same boat as you. It opens fine. But closing it, it just latches shut but doesn't actually pull it down.

The motor is probably still good, but it could be either your striker switch or your reversing valve.

The reversing valve is the little tab on the driver's side that the hook presses when you close the lid. On my car (functioning correctly), I can make the motor pull down by pushing the striker switch with my finger. Letting go, the motor will pull back up. In the same area on the passenger side there will be a spring with a hard plastic piece on top of it.

If it's not the striker switch, than it's probably the reversing valve. There are four continuity tests (two going up, two going down) that can be performed with a multimeter. In my case, the two tests going up worked fine, but only one of them worked going down....This is why after a few days, my trunk was mysteriously closed after having been latched closed but not actually pulled down during that time.

Regardless, you're going to want to get ahold of TDS (top-down solutions) as he has all the parts you'll need. I went ahead and bought a new motor and housing from him at the same time.

A good bit of advice is to buy the new guides while you're taking it apart. My original ones looked fine until I actually took everything apart. At that point, they crumbed into about 3 or 4 pieces on each side. TDS sells these as well.

 

Man if you had a '92 I could help you. The unit changed to a smaller part for '92

 

Well, it looks like I'll be swapping the one from my 91 Formula onto my Z28... ugh. What a stupid design.

 

tbh it just gets stuck lol. Just stick ur finger in mechanism and make it pop back up. then drop the hatch and it'll catch it. Happens a ton i hear. has happened to me twice.

 

This is correct, it has happened to me quite a few times. Just push down on the motor with your finger and it will come back up, then it will catch and lock the hatch when you close it.

 

Just loosen the mounting bolts for the motor & move it down. Then it will be like the early 3rd gens before power hatches were made.

 

^Yeah
-
ya'll are just over thinking it lol. This is actually quite a common problem.