So i bought a 86 trans am a couple days ago and the major concern of mine was the hatch was secured with duct tape.

So after removing the duct tape to see what i have to deal with i see alot of chopped wires and what appears to me missing wires all together.

This is the picture of where the wires comes from


This is all the hatch wiring i have to work with :S


Close up on the wires


This is the hatch with duct tape


I am thinking i am going to need to get a new wiring harness, but i would like to get rid of the duct tape asap

Any help is greatly appericated

 

I see nothing wrong with the wires, that's how sloppy it came from the factory.

Maybe your hatch motor is simply broken, or maybe it's stuck half way. Next to the latch hook there's a microswitch. Stick your finger in there and see if it will raise the pull down up to the top. You should hear a click and when you drop the hatch the motor should pull it down.

Make sure the motor has 12V and the grounds are all screwed down tight to the sheet metal. Plug all the connectors back in where they belong

 

Ya but the hatch motor has a wire coming out of it and i dont have a wire with the correct housing to hook it up to how would it get power

 

Still not working the white wire was cut and have no idea where it goes

 

Can someone post how they have there hatchs wiring setup, i think i might be missing some stuff :S

 

Did you buy that car in the south? It seems to be a common method of securing a trunk lid down here. I've even seen body colored duct tape. Always a nice touch. I'd suggest getting a service manual for the car. They are well worth the price. Here's a link to some hatch wiring pictures that may help you...

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/elec...tch-motor.html

 

Nah i bought this car near philadelphia O.O mostly for the motor, transmission and gear ratio

 

I am missing that connection to the hatch completely :S

 

Don't worry about the white wire. It had a small black connector on it, but it was not plugged into anything until 1989. That year they plgged the white wire into a black with orange stripe wire to turn on/off the rear hatch light since they no longer had the manual light switch that was used in earlier years.

If you are having problems getting the pull-down unit to work, check oout the Tech Article under General Repair on fixing them.

https://www.thirdgen.org/tech/hatchpulldown.pdf

All the wiring for the pull-down unit is included with the striker-sensing switch. I sell the 86-87 and 88-91 striker-sensing switches along with all the parts to repair these hatch pull-down units on my web site.

Lon Salgren

 

So just an update I got the hatch to, lock but it doesn't feel like its closed right still. Looking at the Mech it looks like the Mech is suppose to slide up to lock the hatch in place. I am just looking for some clarification on how the system is Suppose to work