I have a bone stock 1988 GTA. I found some water in my hatch today after a severe Fall storm, and realized the water had leaked in from the hatch pulldown motor area. It seemed like the hatch wasn't shut all the way. Anyways, I vacuumed out the water, and when I tried to shut the hatch, it locked in place, but the motor isn't going down at all. I do hear a constant buzzing of the motor, but it isn't pulling the hatch down. I took the rear panel off and the connections all looked very clean, but something's obviously off. And of course this was at work and it started raining really hard again. I was luckily able to use a buddies storage unit to get my car in out of the storm, but can't leave it there for more than a couple days. I'm able to unlock the hatch using the key without a problem, and the latch engages when the hatch is pulled down, but the motor just won't pull. It was trying all the way on my drive to the storage unit (could hear the constant buzzing. I do have a dashboard remote unlock in my car, which has never worked, but I don't know that it is linked to this issue. Is there anyway to override the motor control and lower the latch, i.e., make it a manual hatch for now until I can figure out the issue? Just so I can at least keep the hatch dry in the rain until I have my own storage unit in a month. Thanks much!!

 

Unfortunately, the gear housing allows the hatch to pull down. You may consider a tarp until you can get the pieces to repair it.

 

Thanks for the heads up on that. I was hoping there was someway to override it like the headlight motor manual adjustment. Sounds like there isn't.

 

Well I took the whole unit apart and found that the nylon gear that lowers/raises the shaft is worn out. Since I was in there, I ordered a replacement housing, motor, and gear. But since I had it apart and was looking at it, I figured this could work as a manual override. I put the entire mechanism back together with the exception of the motor (housing back in place, along with the black plastic up/down switch), and used a flatblade screwdriver in the shaft where the motor would normally go and manually moved the gear, lowering/raising the shaft. Right now this is at the lowered position. I left the plastic switch in so that I'd hear the click and know when to stop. Theoretically, I'd think that if I bolted this back in to the car completely reassembled, with the exception of the motor, the latch would be ready for the hatch to be lowered down and lock in place as a manual lock?

 

I was discussing this very topic a few days ago. Here's my experience:

First, per my other thread, most people seem to feel like the pulldown motor was a way to keep people from slamming, or putting too much pressure on that big ole piece of hatch glass, so keep that in mind as you experiment.

I've repaired the pulldown assembly on two cars. An 88 and an 89 Iroc. Both had/have original weatherstripping, so it's good and worn in. On my first car, the red 89, I tried to keep the hatch/latch in place and use it manually while I waited on parts. It didn't come anywhere near being able to latch, AND be low enough to where it looked properly closed. Even then, it took a good amount of force to close, and was still probably a good .25" to .5" from being closed. This was fine for a week or two, but ultimately I did fix it. Then just recently the unit went bad on my 88, and again, while waiting for parts, I rigged it up for temporary use. On this car, I would sit lower than the 89 before it even contacted the latch. Then, just a quick little shove and it latched just fine. It was about 1/16" of an inch from sitting "perfect", and you couldn't tell unless you were REALLY paying attention. Ultimately I did fix it, but it would absolutely have been acceptable in my opinion to leave it manual. I just have OCD about stuff working right, so I fixed it, lol.

 

Oh I agree about fixing it.. I'm just waiting on parts and probably won't even do the temporary fix since I should have everything I need by the weekend. It was just something I was messing with and I figured it could work as either a stopgap or permanent fix if desired.