Hey guys, I got a question about swapping out hatch motor units. I've got an 86 T/A with an original hatch motor that still works and my 91 Firebird daily driver has a bad hatch motor. I'm wanting to swap the entire 86 unit into the 91 but I need to know if this will work? The unit in the 91 is the early year metal frame model and from what I can tell it looks physically identical to the one in the 86, both with solenoid release. However, I need to know if the wiring is the same and if it's not can it be modified to work? From what I can tell on the 91 there's just the lock cable, some ground wires, and the 4 pin connector to run the motor. I haven't looked at the 86 yet to see if it's the same.

I'm needing to do this tomorrow since I'm getting rid of '86 on Sunday so any replies would be greatly appreciated.

TIA!

 

If they are both the metal frame style then they will work no problem.If the connectors are different then you just have to cut and splice it together.Should be pretty much plug and play

 

There's a minor change between 86, and 91... The pivot pin between the stationary and moving parts is a pin with a pressed on keeper on one, vs a bolt and nut on the other. The wiring is also slightly different.

I did that swap on a friend's car several years ago. My work around for the wiring issue was to use the original harness from the car with the working pull-down. It had to come apart a bit to get the harness off, but it wasn't a huge problem.

 

I haven't swapped them yet but I got a good look at both of them together and it looks like it'll just be a matter of splicing one connector. The blue wire that connects to the red/white wire on the 86 uses a fat white connector and the same wires on the 91 use a little black connector. The 91 also has a white wire connected to a black/orange wire and the 86 just has the white wire hanging out not connected to anything (no black/orange on the 86 harness). The connectors look identical so I'll just connect the white wire on the 86 unit to the black/orange wire when it goes in the 91. Everything else looks identical. Same color wires on the 4 pin connector and 2 ground wires.

I'll post back this afternoon/evening when I get the swap complete so we have a definitive answer as to whether or not it works in case someone searches for this info in the future.

 

Swap is complete and working.

There were only 2 differences, which I mentioned in the earlier post. First was the connector between the blue and red/white wires so I just cut the connector off each unit and quick spliced each of them onto the other unit. The other difference was the 91 unit had a white wire going going to a black/orange wire. The 86 unit had the white wire but it wasn't connected to anything and the connector was correct so when I put it in the 91 it connected to the black/orange wire with no issue.

 

The white wire that connects to the black with orange stripe wire provides a switched ground to turn on and off the rear hatch surround light. The earlier ones have a manual switch instead if they have a hatch light.

Lon