hi everyone. kinda new to the thirdgen way of life but everyone on seems awesome and i was wondering if i could get some words of wisdom. i have 2 87 birds one im using for parts and ill have lots of stuff up for grabs should anyone want. im trying to switch my whole hatch motor assembly and ive run into a snag the connection at the lock cylinder....do i need to take the whole cyl out or does the white piece with the cable pull off? also i saw one wire coming from the body....do i cut it and splice it or is there another way to go about this. i can post pics should i need to but any info would be great. thanks in advance. anyone on long island in 516????

 

The hatch pulldown harness connections just unplug. The ground wires are to the body with one screw. No need to cut the wires.

 

Try checking www.top-downsolutions.com
They have bunch of PDF's that helped me with my hatch motor

 

OK, here goes. The white connector on the hatch rellease cable snaps onto the back side of the lock cylinder. There is a groove on the lock cylinder and two molded circumferential tabs on the white molded plastic connector that snap into that groove. You need to very carefully pry that plastic tab from the groove on each side of the connector. Once you've pried it free it will come right off. The power is supplied by the red with white stripe wire that plugs into the blue wire. For the 86-87 that will be a large black connector, for 88-91 it's a small black connector. There's a black ground wire to attached to the ground location below the pull-down unit. If you have the optional hatcdh release solenoid, there is a black ground wire attached to the 10 mm screw that mounts the solenoid to latch assy. The other end is also attached to the ground location mentioned previously. That ground wire is very important, since without it the solenoid is isolated from ground by the guides in the track. Again if you have the solenoid hatch release, there is a black hot wire to unplug from the end of the solenoid. On the 90-91 model years the white wire plugs into a black with orange stripe wire. It supplies a switched ground to turn on and off the hatch light. That'a all you need to remove to swap pull-down units.

Lon

 

thanks fellas, got it in there. needs some adjusting but will do the job for now.

 

i just ran into a tail light swap that arises another issue with hatch motors that i cannot find a thread on anywhere in the search, i have a 91 Formula, i swapped from base lights to 3 piece GTA lights and now to 2-piece 91/92 GTA lights w/correct harness and the hatch pull down plug (4Wire off motor) has a 5 wire on the harness.... hmmm... wish i had a wiring diagram of both so i knew which wires to hook into the 4 wire off the 5 wire, at least i know the ground wire is gettin plugged in lol

 

Which of the two pull-down motors used for the 1991 model year do you have? Early 91 model year have a metal frame (where it bolts to the car body with 3 screws and weighs about 7 lbs). Late 91 model year pull-down units have a tan colored plastic frame where it bolts to the car body with 3 screws and weighs about 3 lbs. You can not easlily swap one for the other.

Lon Salgren

 

i have the heavier type, but i figured it out, i just used the power wire to the one wire lead and it works fine however, somewhere along the lines i lost power to the rear cargo light.. not sure why, nothing else was changed, possibly blew the bulb playin with them wires.

 

Plug the white wire into the black with orange stripe wire. That is a switched ground to turn the light on and off. There should be a red/white stripe wire to provide positive to the bulb.

Lon