Hey guys, my 1987 Iroc-Z's hatch wont close. After sitting all winter long I took it out for the first time yesterday.. took off the car cover and popped the truck with the rear hatch swtich and the motor moved and the hatch came up and opened. As soon as I tried closing it, it won't close. It's stuck open. I don't hear the motor running. I manually opened it with a key and tried again but nothing. The switch still makes the relay in the back click. I can hear that. What do you think the problem is? What is a easy fix?

 

Guy I wish I knew what caused this. Ive owned 3 of these cars and every one of em have done this at one point. For me, Its usually a matter of jiggling the latch and just generally fiddling with it. I have had to tear down a switch and rebuild it once, but its not usually that bad. Wish I could tell ya more. N het if that doesnt work a bungie cord will always hold it down lol.

 

I had the same issue the other day. There are two items that control this latch. One that is the locking and one that move the whole lock downward. The one closest to you when standing at the back of the car is the one that pulls the whole motor down and the one furthest away is the actual lock for the latch. If you take a screwdriver and stick it in the one closest to you the motor should move down. What ends up happening (at least with mine) are the guides that pull the motor down went bad (common issue) and the latch will not lock in to pull the motor down. Make sure the pull down motor works first. If that is the case the gear is still good. Just buy new guides from here.
1st option http://www.top-downsolutions.com/hat...o-or-firebird)

2nd option http://www.hawksthirdgenparts.com/ha...omponents.aspx
NYLON GUIDES

It is more than likely just out od alignment due to the guides being cracked, damaged or non-existent.

 

I agree that bad guides will casue this problem. It can also be that the striker-sensing switch (that rearebmx describes) is going bad. Either link he provided will get you my aftermarket nylon guides. To diagnose if the guides are bad, grab hold of the latch and see if you get side-to-side or front-to back movement. If so, you have broken guides. If you get up and down movement of the latch, then the clear plastic hatch motor housing is broken. All these items are available on my web site.

Lon Salgren

 

Hey, I own a 92 Z-28 and mine has been sitting for years with a broken 350 TPI engine. I popped the hatch earlier this year and the same thing happen to me. I used a Wire Tester to poke at the wires to see what was going on and it sparked it and made a connection and was able to get the motor to move completely down and I closed the hatch. I am going to replace hatch motor when I get this car moving again.

 

If you got the motor to work by bypassing the switch, it is NOT the motor that is the problem. Most likely is is either the striker sensing switch (starts either the up or down cycle) or reversing switch (trips to reverse polarity to the motor) that are bad.

Lon

 

Giving my 2 cents, The mechanism holding the lock at the rear hatch might been bendt or the factory weldings giving in and there is some bolts also holding the rails... (oddly heavy build for keeping trunk shut) see if there is some cracks or such

 

Here's my experience: Out of nowhere, the power hatch will not work. Won't pull down at all. I took the trim panel off, and first noticed the latch would jiggle a little bit (bad guides). I found the metal reverse tab, flipped it, and lo and behold, the motor came on and pulled down the hatch. Problem solved for now, until I really need to get new guides. Heh, prolly sooner than later.

 

Hey wanted to give an update on my 92 Z-28 hatch issue. I finally after a year have the time to work on my car. The hatch motor is fine and it moves up and down on the rails just fine. I tested this by taking the 16622774 (switch actuator) off and hooking power and ground to motor to test. The power wires to the switch light up with tester. So I am assuming the Relay is fine. The problem lies with the discontinued part.
Does anyone know if I can fix this part or does anyone have one for sale????

 

I should have the parts you need on my web site.

Lon Salgren

 

I tried to order that Used Reversing Switch for 91-92 Pull-Down Units ***

out of stock

Can I drill the rivets out and fix this dumb thing?

 

Take a look again.

Lon

 

Hey, thanks again....Now funny thing...I took the one torx screw out of the switch and I was going to drill the rivets out to see what is going on in the inside of it. I hook it back up and the motor moved again. SO weird, but I am going to keep that part just in case.

The new problem I have is the latch... it's not holding on to the trunk while the motor is going down. If I hold the trunk closed when the motor is going down, it will hold it. When I use the key to pop the trunk...instead of the trunk moving slowly up and then popping, it pops out and motor starts to come up... As of right now it seems to be the solution, but I want to get it to work just right, like it worked before.

Do I have to replace the trunk latch or is there an adjustment?

 

Your late 91-92 style pull-down is working properly. When you release it with a key the latch releases the hatch hook immediately and the pull-down unit starts the "up" cycle. If instead you push on the hatch release switch, the unit is turned on to cycle up. Before the unit reaches the end of the up cycle the lever on the back side of the latch will make contact with the ramp that is screwed onto the back side of the tan-colored plastic frame. As the lever contacts the ramp it is rotated 90 degrees to release the hatch hook just before the unit reaches the end of the up cycle. The lever rotating the latch 90 degrees is the same as you using your key to release the latch. It is just your action of releasing the latch manually happens sooner in the cycle.

If however your latch is not latching fully onto the hatch hook, then you need to investigate why. It can fail to latch due to dirt and dried grease preventing it from fully latching. Or the spring and the cage covering the spring that is just in front of the latch could have become bent from someone damaging it. Take a look at the latch. Test it with a screwdriver and see if it latches onto the screwdriver and releases. I know on the earlier style (86-early 91) if the hatch is not aligned (pushed too far to the rear of the car) that the hatch hook will not properly engage into the latch. In that case the latch is trying to grab the hatch hook in the round portion of the hook instead of the flat part in the middle. I imaging if the hatch on your late 91-92 is also out of adjustment. I am far from an expert on how to realign your hatch. There is a Tech Article on the subject in the Tech Articles here on TGO and also a thread that gives an alternative method. If yours has this issue then do your search to see if this is something you feel comfortable tackling yourself. Otherwise take it to a Body Shop to do the job.

Good Luck,

Lon

Lon

 

I just bought a 1988 IROC Z and boy what a pile, but what can you expect for $300. I opened the rear hatch with the key and now it won't latch again. From previous posts I see that there is some kind if motor? The battery is dead so do I need to have power in order to get that latch closed?

 

YES. NEED POWER. You can open with a dead battery but the motor will not rise to latch again. Just add some electric

 

The same thing happened to me. I just slammed the hatch down really hard to force it in, and then it closed. I can open it from the inside with no problem, I just can't use it on the hatch itself.

 

And you wonder how the hatch glass breaks.

Just hook up some jumper cables to the better leads & close the hatch using power. Much easier solution

 

Just supply 12v to the blue wire that connects to the red/white stripe wire and ground to the serrated ring terminal. If the motor will not power up with the battery connected, then call me and I'll help you diagnose the problem.

Lon Salgren
Top-Down Solutions
626-369-0040

 

I need some help any suggestion will be great. My rear hatch motor just got replace it goes up and down like it should the latch locks down with a screwdriver but after replacing my motor it seems not to lock on to the latch if the latch is not high enough for it to catch. And when I look under it while I'm closing it down its seem that the latch and the trunk hook does not seem to be line up as if the trunk hook is too far back pass the latch and I have no guides at this point waiting for it to come in. Even if I laid inside the back seat and they to guide it to the trunk hook while someone outside is closing it down it seems that the clearance and distance is not measuring up. I even try to adjust the hatch far as forward as possible but still don't work. Please help me out

 

I assume you didn't Mark the location of the hatch pull-down unit before replacing it (hence it not aligning with the hatch hook now). Regardless, it is simple to adjust. Simply loosen the three 13mm bolts that attach it to the body. There are large square holes under the bolt heads that allow for a lot of adjustment side-to-side and up-down. Loosen, them, then move the frame until it is lined up with the hatch hook. You can also raise it up, then tighten the bolts. Now test the function of the latch to grab hold of the hatch hook. You can test it, then repeat the process of adjusting it down until you get the hatch to seal. You don't want to lower it too much and CRUSH the hatch seal. You just need it to lower enough to seal out exhaust fumes and water. If you set it too low or you risk breaking the plastic motor housing.

Lon Salgren
Top-Down Solutions

 

I wish someone would reinvent the trunk motor on the third gen make it more reliable

 

Hi guys question maybe someone can help me out I have a 1988 camaro trunk won’t close replace the motor replace the guides latch went down won’t come back up any ideas??? Now the car doesn’t have a release button in the car could that be the reason??

 

Most likely cause is the reversing switch. Remove it and test it for continuity using a test light or multimeter as shown in the attached sketch. If you get an open instead of continuity you've found the problem. GM discontinued the switch long ago, but I sell them refurbished on my web site under TDS part number 205180.

 

Ok thank you really appreciate the help what your website called

 

https://www.top-downsolutions.com/

 

 

That video was a fantastic and simple solution! I've actually got rarebmx's convertible Trans AM now and this just happened to it to. It was just a case of pressing that magic button in the latch mechanism until it went all the way down, then releasing it so it went all the way up - after which the trunk pull-down works again. Before I'd done that, the latch mechanism was only part-way up for some reason but still managed to release the trunk without any great force needed on my part.

Thanks to this thread and that video, the battery hasn't gone flat from the trunk light being stuck on overnight!