I know most people go the other way around but I'm almost done rebuilding a motorized unit from the junkyard and was wondering how hard it is to convert from the std. latch to the motorized latch?

 

I have done just that on my 82.

You do have to make sure you get the mounting bracket that the pulldown bolts to and be carefull with welding it to the car so that you can align the pulldown.

Im not sure if you can use the 84 compartment door and rear plastic because of the size of the pulldown unit.I have the later model door which which is smaller and the rear plastic that has a bigger bulge to accomdate the pulldown.

 

What did you do for the wiring? I cut the harness off at the point where it conjoined into the taillight harness. Ya im tracking down the plastics and cargo cover.

 

I just finished doing the bracket conversion on my 85. I'll get some pics up soon.
If you are careful in removing the donor bracket by drilling the spot welds and not bending the tabs, it's not too hard to get lined up as the tabs conform to the panel. I actually cut out the whole section with the bracket for a template to make sure I had it in the right location but that turned out to be unnecessary. A photo of the original and good tabs will be sufficient.
I'm changing the harness completely from a donor GTA , but I think the 85 ta and later cars I've pulled all had the same taillight harness with sockets for the pull down harness. You just need the harness that actually connects to the motor and that relay that's on it. 91-92 harnesses are slightly different, different release solenoid I think.
I guess the 84 might not have that, so you might need the whole rear harness fom a later car. I suppose you could just wire it separately. If you don't worry about a hatch release, should just take a 12v feed and ground it.
I have a few harnesses if you need one, I'll look and see what's there.

 

here are pics of the brackets.
black pull down bracket from an 86ta, installed on 85ta.

 

So it looks like i need to take the bracket off the donor car and weld it up to the 84 trans am? Took it off an 86 Camaro

 

Yup, hopefully the back panel is the same on 84s, pretty sure it is.

 

Oh and you have to remove the existing manual latch bracket.

 

Wire a fused +12v to the blue wire with a small black (or large white) connector on it. 1986-87 had the white connector, 88-91 used the small black connector. On the factory wiring it is a a red with white stripe wire that connects to this blue wire. Connect the black serrated ring terminal of the wiring loom to the body ground location below the pull-down unit. If you want to hook up the optional electric solenoid latch release, you need to hook up a switched fused hot wire to the black connector on the end of the solenoid. GM used a black wire if you can understand that logic. You'll to run a ground wire from the 10mm screw that attached the solenoid to the latch. The other end connects to the body ground location below the pull-down unit. Take a look at the schematic for a 86-91 Firebird or Camaro to see the additional safety features you'll need to add to the wiring of the hatch release circuit that prevent you from popping the hatch if the car is in motion.

Lon

 

Doesnt sound to bad then. I'll just rebuild my unit with one of TDS's kits and start putting it together. Thanks!