I was just wondering what in the world could have happened to my hatch pull down motor on my 91 Bird. It was another beautiful day here in Ga and I thought I would remove the ol' T's. I popped the hatch and removed the T's and placed them in my "trunk" I then went to close the hatch ever so easily and all it done was "click" I popped the hatch again several times with the release button and the actual key itself and nothing ever happened, it only locks but it does not pull itself back down. Is my relay possibly bad or is my motor fried? Opinions?

 

All the information I am giving you applies to the first design for 1991. These had a metal frame. If yours has a injection molded plastic frame I can't help you. The change was made with vin #173202.

Check the fuse. On Camaros it is the LID fuse (a 15 amp). I had one unit I rebuilt do something similar when I tested it. It moved the latch up, tripped the reversing switch, hesitated, then continued moving the latch portion up after it had tripped the reversing switch. The motor continued to get power. You could hear a slight hum and it got warm. I disconnected the power before damaging the motor. I could jumper the power to the motor and get the unit to pull down, but it wouldn't respond to the striker sensing switch. The problem was somehwhere in the wiring. I replaced the striker sensing switch and wiring and it worked fine. New Striker sensing switches are available from GM. The 88-91 striker sensing switch is p/n 16604067. If you pull the hatch trim out and discover that your unit needs parts to repair it contact me by e-mail. I manufacture new nylon guides and stock most of the parts needed to repair these. I also have rebuilt 86-87 & 88-91 hatch pull-down units in stock. They are $92.50 plus a $30 refundable core charge. The rebuilt units have a 6-month warrannty. E-mail me at topdownsolutions@yahoo.com for a price list.

Lon Salgren
Top-Down Solutions

 

if that dont help you, try taking out the motor and look at the opertating teeth inside if its like mine the plastic teeth can easly be broken resulting in the motor to keep running but no hatch pull down.

 

FU-Q, Yes you had the classic symptoms of a broken or stripped gear nut (motor runs yet latch doesn't raise of lower). Birdonfires symptoms are not those of a broken gear nut.

Lon

 

sorry i must have misread the post...

 

First of all what are the last 6 digits of your vin number counting from the right to the left, but read them to us left to right, this will tell us which pulldown you have.

HAVE YOU CHECKED ALL FUSES?

lonsal wants to sell you a lot of parts but I think you just have a bad logic unit. If it's the 2nd version of the pull down like on my 92, when you close the hatch it pushes a switch down that tells the logic unit to go down until it pushs down the little switch thats on the inside.

SOUNDS like you have the first unit, because you are able to pop the hatch(on 2nd version you could only pop with a key) but lets make sure. If the first version then it's the switch on the strike plate or the motor.