I just found out that the motor in the 89 firebird has broken. all three mounting holes have been broken( someone slammed the hatch?) my question is... can a manual hatch mechanism from my 84 TA be adapted to the 89? don't need the power hatch yet and I'm not driving the TA so It can do without one until I can get a new motor assembly... the mounting area looks different, but I haven't played to much with it yet...
the 89 is my daily driver and I need the hatch closed.

 

Not sure if it can be exchanged for the non electric type, but i also have the same problem, that stupid plastic peice which seems to support the entire pull down assembly is broken.

Replacement hatches are 300-500 bucks too!

Any one know if this can be replaced with the non-electric?

 

In a way, ive yet to fully do this, but you have do maybe try this, take a piece of cardboard, put it on the mount, poke three holes thru, find the height that the clasp has to be at, then, ghetto rig it to the mount at that height, then on top of the motor is a little black box, with a clasp on the side, so remove it, then you have a non, Pull down release,

Hope that somewhat helps


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91 FireBird 305 V-8
no true mods,
ghetto rigged cold air intake,
People dont have a soul, its just something parents made up to frighten little children, like the boogie man, or micheal jackson..."

GheTTo Riggers INC.
We Make Mcgyver look Like Crap

 

i stuck a small screw driver in the bracket and it held real tight even w/o the electric pull-down

 

Sorry. Cant do it. Or at least, when l tried to get an 85 model fixed into my 89 bird. Then holes just didnt line up at all.
Good luck.

Clayton

 

Thanks guys... I did find a solution. I ended up going to a large salvage yard near here and was lucky enough to find a used replacement housing for three dollars... can't believe it!!! after it was put in, the rear hatch seals better than it did before...
BTW... they have abou 40 third gen cars there
so if anyone needs anything.. e-mail me
sarahs_tigger2000@yahoo.com
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[This message has been edited by Tigger84TA89BIRD (edited January 11, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Tigger84TA89BIRD (edited January 11, 2001).]

 

My girlfriend was able to get an '84 manual hatch mechanism put into her '87 Camaro to replace the electric pull-down unit.. I guess the mounting bolts must've changed after '87.


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-Tom P (Hot rodded 1986 Firebird 2.8l) from http://www.f-body.net/mailbag/3rd/3rd_mailbag.html message boards
---Think your car could be pic of the week? Visit http://www.f-body.net for details!

 

I have had 3 separate pull down hatch motor assy's apart and all had cracked motor cases at the mounting bolts. It is much easier to repair them if it is still only at the lightly cracked stage than if the mount locations are completely broken off. For the minor cracked ones I repaired them with some thin aluminum sheet stock which I trimmed and formed around the sides and epoxied in place. The one that was completely broken was also repairable with some angle steel which I drilled and tapped and epoxied in place of the former bolt mounts. Bottom line, if you reinforce it before it completely breaks it is much easier.