87 firebird trans am

Rear hatch won't engage and pull down. Motor makes no noise, doesn't even try to start, motor doesn't get warm either.

I replaced the Hatch pull-down relay and the striker sensing switch (I got a reconditioned harness/switch). I was hoping it was going to be one of those. The 15 amp fuse looks OK, but I put in a new on anyway.

The button on the dash makes the hatch release click.
Pushing the striker sensing switch and nothing happens (I read other suggestions here about engaging that to get the motor to go).
The plastic guides look OK, the unit wiggles a little but noting looks bent or broken.

Any way to determine if the motor is stuck in the down position? It appears to be at the top of the slides (where I would expect it when the hatch is open).

Guess my next step is to get a voltmeter and test electricity.

Anyone have a 87 wiring diagram?
Anyone have any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Tony

 

Try opening the hatch with your key, leave it open, and disconnect your battery. leave it disconnected for a few seconds and reconnect it. it should sense that the hatch is open and come back up. It should work.. At least it worked for me...

 

Bman3120,
thanks, I'll give that a shot. So it might be something elsewhere in the car that is remembering the state of the hatch? Because I have the hatch motor and switch disconnected. I'll give it a try and see what happens.
Thanks again.

 

Did you ever get your hatch motor fixed? Mine goes down but it wont come back up?

 

Nope, not yet.
Mine appears to be stuck in the up position (at the top).

I can't get the motor to do anything, no noise and doesn't get warm.

So far I replaced the the Hatch pull-down relay and the striker sensing switch. I also checked every fuse in the fuse block, and replaced the 15 amp hanging on the bottom (should be for the hatch motor) just to be safe (it looked fine).

This weekend I'm going to try disconnecting the battery for a couple minutes and see if that resets anything. Although I would think replacing the hatch relay (and unplugging the wires to the hatch lift motor would have the same effect).

I haven't quite figured out yet how to tell if the motor is bad, without taking it all apart first (which I was trying to avoid).

 

Hey guys,
Thanks for the help. I called the guy from top down solutions. He said my adjustment was off. I raised the entire unit. He said mine never went down far enough to engage the reverse switch. I raised it up as far as it would go and it started working instantly. Asalerno, I would suggest giving him a call. He was very nice in explaining what I needed to do. Thanks again for the responses.

 

The adjustment in these switches does seem to go out. I had mine where it was pulling the hatch down too far and was tearing those plastic gear housings in half. When I figured out what was going on, I put some epoxy on the bottom side of the metal tab that engages the switch. Now it pulls the hatch down perfectly without stripping gears or breaking gear housings.

You really should check the adjustment whenever you put a new gear housing in. The aftermarket ones seem to be a bit different than the originals.