all of these people having problems with their pulldowns and i act like an ungrateful a$$ and break mine while trying to fit the box for my subwoofer back there. i took off the motor, was going to work my box in, and re-attach the motor (it was the only thing in the way). when re-attached the motor it took quite some time and a series of small turns to get the motor shaft to re-align with the gear nut... when i finally got it in, the spring mounted magnets that contact the motor sprung into place and got snapped off as i was tightening it down! they crumbled so easily i didn't even feel it, i just heard it, and immediately stopped, but it was already too late.

anybody know where i can get some of these, one of these whole pieces, or anything i can do as a different resource?

and is there anyway to close my hatch without my pulldown motor working? if i could just get it completely closed for now until i can rip an alternative at the junkyard or before it rains i'll be happy. its been open in my driveway for two days now with something sitting on the hatch to hold it closed.

edit for a pic of what im talking about:



the two little busted bronze colored pieces laying to the side are the magnets that USED to go in the slots circled in blue on the part itself. they used to ride on a spring in the direction of the arrows. now these are shattered, so they don't make contact with the contact on the base of the shaft.

i just need to get it closed for now at least. then i can go find a manual release at the junkyard.

 

Just tell me how to close the damn thing please, lol

 

You will probably have to climb in over the back seat and tie it down from the inside. Or you could just unhook the shocks that lift it and it will stay down that way too.

 

i've tried tying it down, but i live around alot of really rough roads so it was bouncing all over the place and working slack into the line no matter what

good idea about pulling the shocks, i didn't even think about it even though it seems so obvious. i'll yank those and THEN tie it down, it should be good until i can get to a junkyard with some thirdgens (50 miles away damnit)

 

Very hard to tell from the blurry pic but it looks like you broke the motors "brushes". They are the piece that makes contact with the piece that spins to send electricity into the coiled wire. If you are handy, creative and cheap I wouldn't be surprised if you could buy them on the Internet for a couple dollers as they are a common wear item.

 

Got tired of replacing pulldown motor housings, so I used C-clamps to hold the mechanism in place and determined where it needed to be so I could 'click' it closed; drilled holes through the slide and mounting plate; installed two bolts and nuts from Lowes and 'boom' slamdown hatch closing mechanism!

 

yes, thats exactly what i broke, sorry about the pic but my camera is getting aged. now that you say that imma take a look around and see if i can find some

and micktroup, i could never get my hatch to close by just slamming it, i tried it a couple times and then stopped, thinking i would damage the latch. will all of them close when you slam them?

 

ok for what it's worth i just went thru this myself.Found replacement in local bone yard.You may find as i did that the mounting surface welded to the car is different manual to elec.so to fix till find i climbed inside and raised the assembly in the track manualy till i found the "sweet spot" where the latch worked and hatch was snug.then marked the location ,removed the unit drilled it and used maching screws or if ya prefer reeeeeaallllll long thin bolts and nuts to basicaly pin the unit in the sweet spot.remember to mark the assembly location prior to removeal so when ya go to put it back in the spot will still be there and ya won have ta start all over again and end up with swiss cheese from drilled holes.lotsa luck and hope it helps ya some.

 

Any electrical shop that offers electric motor rebuilding services should be able to fix that for you for very little cost I imagine. It's just the brushes and those are about as common and generic in the electric motor world as you can get.

 

Too bad you didn't follow the Tech Atricle on this site covering how to properly disassemble and re-assemble your pull-down motor. You'll see that I don't recommend removing the cover to the motor. Get a replacement motor from another F-Body or Cadillac at a Pick-a-Part yard (or my web site if you can't find any). Then download and follow either the Tech Article on this site or the instructions for the TDS 101170 guides (available to download from the lower right-hand side of my web site under "Documentation").

Lon Salgren
Top-Down Solutions