Got my hatch pulldown working again...turned out the guides had turned into hundreds of small nylon chunks, Top Down Specialties had the replacement guides for $25.00.

The gear itself was completely stripped where it runs on the worm gear from the motor. Pulled a trunk pulldown from a Cadillac DeVille, from a junkyard, which has the identical motor and gear. Took the DeVille mechanism apart, swapped the parts in my pulldown, and replaced the guides.

Took about an hour and a half, and the cost was less than $40.00 for the new guides, and the junkyard motor/gear. Works like new again!

 

It really sucks when those 'guides' start to wear out,....... when they get really worn/busted-up the it causes the hatch pull-down assembly to rattle like crazy !!

I remember that some Caddys' used the same gear; do you know what years were compatible ??

 

I'm pretty certain I got mine from a '96 DeVille.

 

I'm glad the TDS 101170 aftermarket guides solved your problem.

http://www.top-downsolutions.com/hat...o-or-firebird)

Lon Salgren

 

Bumping this very helpful thread, Thanks!

 

Lon is very helpful. I have used him several times. Highly recommended!!!

 

If you were referring to cannabalizing the gears for the pulldown, I can report that 9 years later, the pulldown still works flawlessly.

 

I've grabbed AT LEAST a dozen or so of those Caddy PPD gears for use in the Thirdgen PPD unit since I first wrote into this thread almost a decade ago'; it's a perfect fit !!

** Too bad the reversing switch wasn't a direct fit !!

 

I got lucky figuring the gear thing out. A friend had asked me to look at the pulldowns on his Cadillac Allante that was giving him trouble. Fiddling with his Alllante, I noticed the motors looked very similar to what the Camaro used. Knowing GM’s reputation for reusing stuff, I bought a pulldown from a junkyard…I think I paid $10 for it, and was delighted that it didn’t cost $300 to fix the pulldown. I’m very happy the post has been useful!

 

No, I didnt know the guides were a serviceable item. Thanks to this post and TDS for offering them!

 

I grabbed the entire Hatch pulldown rebuild kit off TDS. Worked really well. Years back I bought the headlight motor kit as well. Very thankful TDS exists. Also just did my odometer gear from Odometergears. Worked like a chime. That was another part that just deteriorated. Great stuff out there to breath new life into these cars.