I have a 1989 Camaro RS. i'm wondering where the fuse for the hatch pull down is located (unless it's the one marked lid). i have the fuse block located under the dash on the driver's side. Every fuse works but not getting power to the motor or the hatch light. It releases with the botton but won't move up or down. The relay is good but not getting power to the relay to begin with. It is a power and the motor and relay are good i'm guessing i'm at the wrong fuse or the power gets lost somewhere in between. Already checked at the motor and the light with multimeter. no luck but hoping there is another relay or a fuse i don't know about since everything seems to be hidden on this car. Any advice?

 

I don't have a wiring diagram for your vehicle, but maybe this will help...

A relay is just an electric switch.

And typically the fuse/circuit which operates the relay "coil" would be different from the fuse/circuit which the relay "contacts" are switching and the device it is powering.

So see if the relay is clicking, that would be one circuit.

If it is clicking, but there is no power on the contacts, then sometimes there is a fuse under the hood or a "fusible link". A fusible link is a wire which is itself a fuse. The wire would go bad if there was a short.

The specifics for all this (and locations) would be in a factory service manual set for your vehicle.

BTW - Relays are used for things which use a lot of power. These things need larger wires to power them. And it is not easy to run larger wires to switches inside the vehicle. So they use relays, can run smaller wires to the switch, and keep the larger wires elsewhere.

For example imagine trying to run those large starter wires to the ignition switch on the steering column! Thus there is a starter solenoid (relay).

 

Unplug the red with white stripe wire from the blue wire of the hatch pull-down motor loom. Test the red with white stripe wire for +12v. If you don't have power there, and your LID fuse is indeed good, then you'll have to trace that red/white stripe wire back to the fuse block and find the open.

Lon

 

the factory serive manuel doesn't mention it trust me i've looked. it only mentions that there is a relay for it which is located by the motor which i found but like i said not geting power going there to begin with. found no fusable link and like i said the relay is good. i guess i'm just gonna have to test where it is that the power seems to stop along that red and white wire and use a jump wire. the thing that seems strange to me is that the hatch light doesn't get any power either and they run different wires all but same fuse. Oh and tested with voltage meter to begin with. and i have a wiring diagrm but the pull down isn't metioned on it at all. anyways i'll see what's up with that jump wire

 

The hatch light is powered on the same circuit. It also get's it's ground through the striker-sensing switch of the pull-down unit for 89-91 model years.

Lon

 

There is a small swith attched to the actual latch itself it gets pushed by the hook on the hatch so check that out. The switch controls the motor operation and the light by controling the ground for the circuit. The LID fuse is the fuse for the rear hatch motor and light. I just recently had to fix the same problem with my 89.

 

i have an 89 rs that didn't come with the release button. it does have the pull down latch. i'm wanting to know if i can install a button, and what is needed