this weekend i decided to tackle a few issues of my 83 T/A and the big one was the hatch popper that never worked for as long as i owned the car. after metering everything and finding the relay was good i fially found the issue. its a small resistor thats in the tan wire that comes out of the relay and grounds it.
is this resistor/ballast important? does it step the power down to the proper level for the resistor or is it just an interfearance gate or something? if not that dude is gone cuz thats the only thing stopping it from working properly.

 

can you get a pic by any chance?? if this is the prob with mine i wanna see what your looking at while you have it apart if you have a camera. I got the t-5 as well and i'm wondering if that is supposed to be grounded to the e-brake to only let it work when you have the car is "parked." sorry to jump on your thread, it just went with your questions.

 

hey no sweat bro, i'll be glad to get a shot for ya. and no your not treadin on my thread, your like me lookin for help on a low discussed topic.

as for anything being wired to the E brake handle there shouldnt be anything cept the E brake dummy light.

to help ya with the wiring layout, there is an orange wire that comes from the back of the fuse box to the switch, a pink wire comes out the other sideand goes to the relay plug that is above the ALDL plug. this panel drops down. out of the relay plug is a black wire that goes stright back to the popper. there is a tan with white stripe wire that goes along with the black wire over to the kick panel area and then sepaates from the black wire. the wire i speak of is possibly wrapped up in tape like mine was.

that resistor/ballast is whats keeping mine from working and as mentioned, if it can be chopped with no electrical effects then its gone.
i'll still get ya a pic.

 

The hatch release relay coil is connected to the Gear Selector Switch on Auto Trannys to only allow the hatch to be opened in PARK or NEUTRAL shift positions.

On cars with a Manual Trannny, the hatch release relay coil is in series with the parking Brake Switch. You should only be able to open the hatch if the Parking Brake is engaged.

If you have a resistor on the Tan White wire where the parking brake switch should be, then I wonder if someone hacked the wiring. A resistor would limit the current so that the fuse would not blow, but allow the hatch to be opened without the parking brake switch engaged. I have no idea why there would be a resistor in the circuit, as the wiring diagrams for my 82 Camaro do not show a resistor in the circuit.

The Tan White wire, at least in the 82 Camaros went from the parking brake switch to a splice point in the wiring harness above the steering column. It was connected to the Tan White wire from the brake waring light, the brake pressure switch, the ignition coil and the parking brake switch. None of these circuits show a resistor in them in the wiring diagrams. It would be interesting to see the photos of what you have.


Take a look at the attachment in message #9 in this thread. It has the 82 hatch wiring diagrams for both the Auto and Manual Trannys. I don't think they changed from 82 to 83, nor from Camaro to Firebird.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/el...ch#post3386743 (Hatch unlock button)

Dave

 

thats what i thought...QUICKCHICKEN thats what i meant by a wire going the parking brake cause mine is standard and i was looking at the wiring diagrams in the tech articles and saw there was a difference and i never experimented with my automatic to see if it worked in anything outside of park, so thats what made me think that this was wired like all these new safety features on new vehicles that only work when the car is in park.

I took apart the switch area, everything tested fine, took a look at the relay area, everything was kosier, then went to the back to find sum idiot that owned the car before me forgot to plug the damn thing back in! grrrr

Newayz still interested in seeing that resistor you had! I've been wondering if i put a park/nuetral switch in if it would be like a clutch start cancel thing for my car (a lot easier to put in remote start :-p ) haha

 

82crosfire that makes sense. i'll tinker with mine tomm and see if thats the case where it only opens if the parking brake is on. my 89 formula has had a few times it wouldnt open when the car was running and i wonder if that was due to no E braking being pulled and it too is a stick. and yes that pic will happen tomm.
that resistor is factory as it has those lil tiny band wire clamps they use. i did cont check on that tan wire and it was live on one side of the resistor but on its otherside it was dead so that has me second guessing the E brake part but hey im willin to check it out. heck i'll even crack my console to take a closer look.

 

QUICKCHICKEN

You should see 12 volts to ground on both sides of the resistor, with the parking brake released. If not the resistor is bad and will not conduct current. So you might want to take a look at that while you have the console apart. And, yes the parking brake switch could also be bad.

Dave

 

i did some investigating and these are my findings. without fixing the "resistor", putting the E brake on and hitting the popper didnt work. but i did talk to our F.A.S.T. engineer and told him everything including the wiring layout and he said fuseable link. this makes total sense.
if someone held the button somethings gotta give and luckily it was the fuseable link.
here is the requested pic, scuse the slight fuzz. my camera has a mind of its own at times.
i'll try again tomm if ya want a better pic. but its the wire dead in te middle of the pic and this area is right about where the VATS relay would be on newer cars.

 

Do all camaros hava a hatch pop switch? i cant find mine.

 

No, it was an option.

 

i bought a fuse holder to replace the link and i will try different fuses to see what works starting from smallest till it pops. after it pops i will back it down. i'll likely stick with a 10 or 15 amp for safe measures or unless someone knows a correct amp to use right off.

 

As Toehead stated, the power hatch release was an option, RPO code A90. On Camaros it switch was usually located in the center console, just in front of the storage compartment and just behind the shift lever. If you have power window switches, it would be located between them, in the location described above.

Dave

 

Interesting that you found a fusible link in that circuit. I don't ever recall seeing a link in any of the wiring diagrams on line. I would think a 5 or 10 amp fuse would be fine. The fuse in the fuse box that supplies the hatch release and several other circuits is the 20 amp CTSY Fuse. I would think that fuses smaller than 5 amps would be too small and blow.

Dave

 

thats what i was thinking. i was adj the hatch tonight and i hung the replacement fuse pod on the old fuseable link wire with a 10A fuse and it worked like a champ.

 

Good to hear that yo have solved your problem. I hope you made some good electrical connections where you spliced the fuse holder in place of the fusible link.



Dave

 

i plan to solder it if possible, im all about neat and clean connections. this car is starting to become a snow ball project. iv seriously considerd taking a break from the formula and putting all of my effort into my 83. something about this car.

 

a small update, i fired the car up yesterday and reached over to hit the button and nothing but when hte car was off it popped and for good measures i kit the key and then the button, nothing again but would pop when off so everything is the way it should be.