Well I fixed my rear window, after destroying it, now I dug into the rear pull down part of the hatch well it is not pretty.....

Will this kit < http://www.top-downsolutions.com/pro...products_id=86 > do everything? From what I see of it it should any advise on other parts that may be needed?

1991 Firebird

 

It looks like all the plastic parts are shot... The kit should replace most of what's missing. Assuming the electronic parts are still good, and the remaining parts are intact it should be everything you need.

 

I agree if not talk to the owner directly. He's very nice. Normally what happens is the plastic house has 3 mounting screws that old it on the bracket. Those break and it's all down hill from there.

I have the older '90 version, but I went as far as putting extra JB Weld on the new plastic housing thus re-inforcing it even further. Who ever thought of connecting a metal supporting bracket to a plastic housing with 3 metal screws is dumb.

Most difficult part is getting it turned right and bolted up to pull down tight enough it closes but doesn't bind and trips the switch right.

 

I'm not sure that kit will work. As the website says there was a design change. I ran into that when I ordered a new motor for my hatch from GM. They send the housing with the motor. The motor on the old style slid into the housing. Then was trapped when you bolt that housing to the metal part of the latch. The new GM style, the motor bolts to the housing. Hard to tell from pics. Need better pics of housing. The website says it had a tan color. I never put the new motor in. It was 60 bucks my cost. But the plastic guides in the metal slider part aren't available through GM. Gear was less than 5 bucks.

 

LOL last night just decided to make it a slammer hatch. Gutted everything and set it where it is needed and set some self starting screws into it. Although if I want to change back it still can be done easily, sorta, at least no harder than it would have been from the pic you people see.

The thing that worries me is the pic seems to be a stock pic and the people on the phone really don't know anything about the actual parts, so after about an hour on the phone I gave up and screwed it up or down in this case, LOL.

 

That's the early style pull-down. It changed mid-91 to a completely different setup with a hard plastic case without the steel frame. The early 91 setup is virtually identical all the way back to 86, with exception to the pin/bolt change, and a change to the wiring harness.

It's odd that TDS wasn't able to help you. You could try sending a PM directly to lonsal on here to see if he can help you. The hatch pull-down is more then just a nifty gizmo. Without it, it's somewhat difficult to get the hatch latched. The hatch catches a lot of air when you try to slam it, and with good weatherstripping it tries to cram air into an enclosed space, and usually it won't latch on the first try.

 

After looking at my new motor this am yep what he said^

 

yup it is temporary fix , but seems to work well closes if I hold my mouth the right way and not slam it like I am trying to put the glass through th floor panel.

 

He didn't call TDS, or he would have gotten all the help he needed including the parts. 204040 kit is what you'd need assuming the original motor is still good, otherwise 300310.

Lon

 

what is needed to fix a latch that doesn't move up when the latch is released? reversing switch?

 

My guess would be the switch. Did it just start occuring or was this after fixing something like the housing?

You can remove the back trim panel and visually check the unit while it's pulling down.

You can use a screwdriver/bolt with the trim panel off to test the pulldown motor without using the hatch. If it trips and resets with a screwdriver or bolt or something similiar in there that would let you know that the bracket possibly slipped or it's acouple turns off (if you had the housing apart).

I only say that because it could be possible for the hatch to prevent the pulldown from tripping the switch as was the case with mine when I rebuilt it. I simply pulled it apart again and adjusted it.

 

it's been like that for a while. It's a friends car and he never fixed it until now, he want it fixed, so I went over today and just looked at it and saw the latch was in the open position and down where it would stop after pulling down the latch so it seems that it just released the latch and that was it. So what would be the sets to trouble shoot and fix it?

 

I'm sure Lon can chime in with his expert advice.

I'd start by removing the rear trim panel. Verify all the wiring is connected properly. If the reversing switch isn't tripped the hatch pulldown should have still been trying to pull it close, IIRC. I'm guessing it's a power issue on the motor connector.

I know my wiring that runs into the pull down motor (black connector) is really loose. When it would rattle loose no power would be provided to the motor and that would mean the motor would not move up or down. I finally had to just zip tie it in place because I'm not spending money on a new motor because the 20 year old plastic clip for the connector broke on mine and everything else works.

 

Actually she, not he, and no I didn't call TDS I called here locally trying to get a book on this car to figure what was missing, seems it was a relay not there as well. I got my electrical testing gear out and the electric motor was shot also and talking to the former owner seems he busted everything one day to move this for some reason because it was doing what the persons above was having issues with.

This is a budget cleaner upper first then I will worry about doing the tweaking of the assembly at a later date. But thank you for the part numbers to the appropriate kits needed to replace the crucial parts.

 

Also apologies for not making it clear that this was not TDS I spoke with.

I just never thought to call a supplier for question regarding the rest of the stuff due to the answers I normally do get from suppliers.