hey guys, so I was at my friends house yesterday and when I was walking towards my car I noticed that my hatch wasn't sitting right, so I walked over to it, and I can pull it up but it wont open because its latched. So I go inside push the trunk release, and all I hear is the trunk release, but the motor doesnt move, when I go to close it, the motor will pull it down, but it doesnt stop pulling until it cant anymore, then it slips, and the hatch rises, but stays latched. What should I do????

 

It may not be the hatch motor, but the plastic gear that pulls the hacth down may be stripped. I would check this part first.

 

take your panel off and visual inspect it if you haven't, is the gear stripped?

push the little black switch near the latch and watch it retract(you have to keep holding it down) when it gets to the bottom will it stop now? if not maybe your reversing switch is bad, if it stops let it go, does it come back to the top?

sounds like a minor component is bad and should be an easy fix, you might even have a cracked housing

just some thoughts

 

Im betting that the housing broke. The housing is plastic, and mine broke one time after hitting a major bump in the road. It was a quick, jarring bump. Shattered the housing.

If its not that, the gear is probably shot. Usually if it lets the hatch up after its been down, its because the housing let loose though. Just go over it visually.

After you figure out whats broken, Lon over at Top Down Solutions will have anything and everything you need to fix your pull down unit to better than new working condition. Including a metal reinfoced housing that should stand up to a little more abuse.

If you arent sure what you are looking at once you are in there, snap some pics for us.

J.

 

Hmmm well now i know what that motor is for now... Pulled teh interior out of mine and all that was sitting their was the guts of the motor no housing... Didnt have a clue what it did

 

well I took it apart the other night, and found out that the plastic nut that holds the motor in place broke, so im going to try and fix it with something

 

Board member "lonsal" (Lon Salgren) runs a supply shop
(Top Down Solutions, I believe) that specializes in obscure
3rd-gen parts, and he has a good rep here. A few searches
should turn up some links to his web-site.

(Tell him he owes me on the pwr seat glides... )

 

ok, well I figured out its the plastic housing that got broken, motor goes up an down still, but it doesnt have an anchor point anymore because that housing is supposed to keep it in place, gonna have to talk to lon, damn GM why plastic???

 

If you are going to order from Lon, take a look around your car and see if you need anything else. How are your upper door pins? Lon sells the kits to make them better than new. Also, he has door strikers which can get worn out especially with saggy doors. Might as well get rebuild parts for the pull down, like new sliders and all that. They deteriorate just like the bushings inside of the firebird headlights.

Just saves you on shipping to get it all now. I have a box of stuff from Lon's site that I havent touched in over a year... I think I only needed to order a $15 item, but ended up spending much more just because I got stuff that I would need, or might need, sometime in the future hahaha...

J.

 

Hey, in case you end up needing the motor and housing, we also have it available here:

Camaro Rear Hatch Motor

 

Anyway to eliminate the power hatch pull down with a regular hatch release?

 

Yup. One of two ways. The first way is what Ide consider a "hack" way. Hack is a word that everyone likes to use around here these days...so hopefully everyone can relate. It basically requires you to drill holes through the pull down mechanism and through the mounting bracket while the hold down is in its "closed" position. Then you bolt the pull down portion so it doesnt move. Remove power and viola.

The other way invovles getting a non-pull down hatch latch, and installing it. That sounds easier than it is. If you search around you'll find some threads talking about it. But I believe you have to remove the welded on bracket, and weld on the new non-pull down bracket.

Personally I see no reason to do either. If you take care closing the hatch, and make sure its adjusted properly, they work just fine. yes they can break...but so can any other part on the car. Guys like Lon have made reinforced parts that, at this point, will likely outlast the car.

Not saying not to do it... Just that getting the pull down to work as it should and last isnt that expensive or difficult.

J.

 

GHETTO FIX.....

 

How would u know if u have a automatic hatch pull down? If i have one it is definitely broken cause i have to slam the hatch down for it to stay down and lock. i have the automatic release button inside the car next to the power window buttons, dont know if this helps at all

 

1986 on up have them from the factory. Unless some toothless hillbilly switched back to the early setup, or modified the power pull down, the year will dictate what it has.

 

well 1a's pricing makes me want to get their pull down, but I have yet to see what Lon's pricing is so I will be deciding soon, because I'm tired of having to come up with temporary fixes for the car

 

Like this guy?




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Seriously though, my hatch catches the latch, pulls it down, but sometimes it likes to keep going (all the way up/all the way down) repeatidly....I have been thinking it is a cross-short but you guys seriously think it is a broken motor?

 

Needs more hockey haircut and Lynyrd Skynyrd shirt... But yeah, basically.

 

take the hatch pull down out of your car, take to a clean work place and take it apart.
plug the motor back up to see if it still runs (if does clean every thing with cab cleaner or TB cleaner and re-grease every thing)
it worked for me

 

Testing.

 

To all.
First time posting. I'm having an issue with my Hatch Pull Down Motor Housing. I have an 86 Berlinetta which I purchased new. The orig. housing lasted for 24 yrs. and have subsequently replaced it 6 times. The first 5 broke again upon the first use. The last one I modified with alum. plates and epoxy much like the reinforced one that is being sold. It lasted about 2 mo. but then also broke. I'm wondering if there is some adj. that I can make to keep these housings from breaking. Any thoughts appreciated. All of the housing were new and undamaged upon installation.
Thanks, Gamecio.