Hi guys,

i have searched on the board to see if someone had the same problem, but found nothing. Sorry if there is already a post about that

Well last sunday when my wife , 2 of my childrens & I wanna go to a US car meeting here in France (incredible about 650 US cars by the way) my wife open the hatch & close the hatch BEFORE the complete electrical running operation was over maybe this is the problem. Now the motor is running all the time....

here's a video :

video of latch motor

Relay problem ? anything else ??
Thanks for your help !

Chris

 

Mine did the same thing, the large plastic nut that lowers and raise the whole assembly was completely stripped out on mine. Got a replacement from TDS, and it was as good as new.

http://www.top-downsolutions.com/gea...ull-down-units

 

You could have a cracked motor housing. its quite common. sometimes when the housing pulls away, it doesnt think the hatch is down and keeps running. best thing to do is take the trunk interior apart and have a closer look. the track guides also get brittle and crumble. there are a lot of posts on on these issues.

 

This would be MY bet. ....I've done it and experience the same thing. Check out top down solutions for replacement parts. ....best bet is to get in there and see what's broken though, before order new parts.

 

Thanks guys for your fast response ! i'll check this,
thx again

Chris

 

Hawks has everything you need to rebuild it or replace it. They have the plastic gear housing and you may want to check out the plastic guide upgrade. It replaces the individual guides with a large one per side and keeps everything better aligned so it doesn't bind up in the future. I repaired my before and it happened again. Since I rebuilt it the second time, with the new design guides, it has worked flawlessly for years.

 

Thanks antman, too late after my response i have ordered the complete one from Dorman : http://www.hawksmotorsports.com/camaro-firebird-86-91-new-reproduction-replacement-rear-hatch-motor-with-plastic-housing-gear/

i'll kept for parts the parts i do not need

 

Nice post, mine actually is doing the same, i also have an 88 camaro

 

Well, i have just replaced the complete unit i have received from USA.
However, it doesnt works.

i have put my finger inside and the motor lower a little bit & then did not work anymore, i cannot even close the trunk !

Any ideas please ?thanks guys
Chris

 

If I remember correctly there are limit switches that control up/down limits and a wiring plug on the motor assembly. I believe there are 2 or more wire connections to the harness for it to work properly. Either a connection left out or possibly knocked something out of adjustment or flipped a switch.

 

If it is moving up and down, but not closing, its possible the gear was not installed correctly. The gear needs about 5 or 6 turns and that is about it. If the gear is not in correct position, it will trigger the limit switches too early/late. don't recall which way. First make sure it is even turning, because you will need to disassemble everything to get to the gear. there is probably a small amount of testing you can simulate while the hatch is open.

 

thanks for your response,

liquidblue : nope it doesnt move up&down. It's not closing even if your put a big 'slam' on the trunk (what i can do before i change the complete unit)

antman89iroc : it seems everything is here, however i just see when i'm doing pic right now i have forgot this ring (who was behind the ring if i remember well)
By the way the housing & gear were both destroyed
here are the pics (the electrical plug was on when i was making the test, not on pics)
camaromoteurcoffre3.jpg
camaromoteurcoffre2.jpg
camaromoteurcoffre1.jpg

 

what ever you do, don't slam it. that is one of the ways these things break.. I think the ring goes between the housing and the gear. when you screw the gear on, it turn it 6 revolutions. Top Down solutions may have directions for you on exactly how many revolutions to screw it down. Maybe that ring is allowing the gear to tighten as if you screwed it down more than 6 revolutions. Can you hear the motor running attempting to turn the gear? reguardless, that ring is there for a reason, better put it back!

 

P.S. get yourself a piece of cardboard to rest those dirt parts on and save that T-Top cover for Gods Sake!

 

yep i think you're right i must dissasemble everything to put this ring again :-(
& i'll do the 6 turn for the gear

nope i dont listen the motor, just silent "clic clac" when i put my finger on

 

& since the pics i have put a piece of fabric on the ttop bag ;-)

 

Hey man you rock ! that was the solution !! the 6 turn procedure works perfect !

it was :
camaromoteurcoffre6.jpg

& then when i put 6 turns (i dont forget the washer this time !)

camaromoteurcoffre5.jpg
camaromoteurcoffre4.jpg

video : video

 

I suppose I'm bringing this thread back from the dead. Same issue on my car. After 30 years, the nylon guides crumbled to dust like Thanos Snapped them. I replaced them. lubed it all up, zero play, and what felt to me like it moved up/down very smoothly. This also likely explains the large metal "thunk" I had from the hatch area over bumps, it was nasty. It was probably the assembly bouncing inside the rails.

Put the assembly back together, definitely didn't want to move, motor was weak. However it did go down and click. So I disassembled it, and cleaned up and used some 3000 grit sandpaper on the guides where it looked like the grease had been cleared away. Re-assembled, and it moved much easier, but still no play.

Great, put it together.

Assembly goes up, up, and then the stops moving, but the motor kept going. Thanks to the clear casing it was easy to see the worm gear spinning and obvious the plastic gear stripped. Took it out, had a crescent moon wear pattern.

I looked for cracks in the housing, but other than finding a some minor ones around the bolt holes I didn't find a crack running through the housing that would indicate the housing is flexing and allowing the work gear to not mesh correctly. Despite the cracks around the bolt holes, all of the screws seated snugly, none stripped. They would thread, and stop dead. Since its plastic I didn't put any torque on them, just let them seat and called it done.

Replaced the gear, same deal stripped the gear in a single spot. Damnit, $20 gone since the gear is probably not usable now.

I looked more closely at the casing, still can't find any cracks in it that would lead me to believe its flexing enough to allow it to strip the gear. Since the whole system is designed around resistance you'd think that if the thing didn't want to spin, it would actually stop and click like the hatch assembly closed or opened.

I took the motor out of the housing, and while it has some end play, I don't really know how much end play it should have. I think the end play is about a 1/16, may a bit more. However it had zero side play, the shaft doesn't move side to side at all.

At this point I think I'm going to just order a whole new motor/housing.

But, I also wonder at the thrust bearing. The bearings inside it look fairly worn, but when I rotated it, it rotated smoothly, even if not easily. I thought that it had too much gunky old grease in there, so I cleaned it up best I could since it can't be disassemble and squirted some axle grease into it. It made a small difference. Part of me is wondering that if when its all assembled, its causing a small binding problem that contributes to making the motor feel weak. I know that when I reassembled it, I had the inner surface on the plastic gear, while the outer surface was against the top plate.

I ran a 12v source directly to the motor when it was out, and it sounded fine, spun easily. It spins fairly easily by hand, and I can feel the stator moving across the magnetic poles.



Hatch Pull Down Gear, Bearing, and Limiter Switch

 

Be sure that you're putting it together with the little lever IN BETWEEN the limit switches. It is actually kind of hard to get it together the right way, and super easy to put it together wrong. It should click the switch at the top of the movement to make the motor stop, and be ready to spin the other direction when the hatch is closed

 

It was, Gear#2 works fine. All back together.

 

4 years later same problem ! plastic part is dead (i think road bumper do not help :/)
but the bearing seems to be dead too as all the 'inside *****' are gone everywhere :/

where can i find this bearing in photo please ? thanks