i know this is asked a million times but i tried searching and nothing made sense my hatch worked fine then i pulled all the plastic out back to paint it including the contact strip and closed the hatch to paint it drew down ok but now when i hit the release button it doesnt even click could that be the contact patch? if not than what? also for future reference is there any way to pop the hatch without destroying the hook? if it helps my car is an 86 thanks for any help

cody

 

I can guarantee one thing. Your problem has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the contact pad. I can say that because the contact pad powers the HMSL (high-mount stop light). Before you closed it you did hook everything back up, right? The first thng that comes to mind is the ground wire. The hatch release solenoid has a single black wire going to the solnoid. That wire is a switched hot wire. There is a separate ground wire that runs from the 10mm screw that attaches the solenoid to the latch portion of the pull-down unit. The other end goes to the common ground below the pull-down unit. The latch portion of the pull-down is electrically isolated from ground by the guides so if that ground wire is missing the solenoid won't work. It's easy to temporarily fix. Pop out the hatch light and run a wire from a ground tocation to the solenoid that you'll see through the hole where the hatch light was located. If that works then pull out the hatch trim panel and put the correct ground wire back in place. It could also be that the fuse for the solenoid is blown.

Lon

 

i figured out the problem, the switch in the center console was bad, all set now but thank you for your help