the other day i put my hatch down and it grabbed the hook and pulled it down and the motor kept running. i popped the hatch to see what was wrong and the motor stayed down there and the motor kept running. the motor is down as far as it can go, but it still keeps going. has this happened to anyone else? how do i fix this? thanks in advance.
-Ryan-

 

The motor continuing to run is the classic symptom of a broken gear nut. This is a plastic gear that is turned by the worm-drive of the motor shaft. It turns a rod that I call the "lift rod" wihch raises and lowers the latch portion of the hatch pull-down unit. Once the gear nuts teeth have broken the motor will continue to run without stopping because the lift rod isn't being moved up/down. A pair of tabs on the lift rod flip a switch on the black plastic box attached to the clear plastic motor housing. Since the reversing switch isn't being tripped it will continue to run. Check the tech article I wrote on repairing them. I stock all the parts you'd need to repair these units.

Lon Salgren