Hey all,
A question about hatch pull-down motors. When I got my car, it didn't work. The release works fine. I had tried to figure out why it didn't work and found the relay full of water and corrosion. I went and got another motor today for $5.00 from a guy parting a 'bird out( great deal). I know it works, as I heard it raise up when he popped the hatch. I installed it, and nothing. The release works but the motor is stuck in the up position.
I checked with a tester to see if there was any power going to the motor, there isn't. I checked the white plug and the the small black plug. So I ask you...
1)Is there a constant live wire to the motor itself,and if there is, which one is it?
2)Is there a seperate fuse for the motor?
3)Is there a fuseable link?
4)Has anyone encountered this problem before?
Anyone with any info on this would be greatly appreciated.
Kevin

 

Hey Kevin.. I encountered this problem with my Oldsmobile.... it ended up being a fuse, easy enought right? NOT.. in the Oldsmobile, there was a hidden fuse panel in where the kick panel is, I had to take the kick panel to gain acces to this fuse panel that was hard to reach.

Try to find the fuse for the motor.

Did you change the water logged relay?

 

Yeah. I got the one that came with the motor. I checked the fuses and don't see any that are burned out. I only have the schematic from the '82 fuse panel. I don't know if there is a seperate fuse for the motor or not.

 

The fuse for the hatch is the ACC(accesory fuse). Its tied in with the accesory circuits. The hatch went about two summers ago. It may not be your motor or relay. When you open your hatch, you will see the contacts on the hatch and end of trunk. Mine were so worn out that the signal wasn't strong enough to activate the motor.

I wasn't going to pay the amount GM wanted for the new contacts, in which i beleive they only sold with the whole trunk release kit, so if you don't want to spend all that $$$$, this is what I did...

It takes two people: one to crawl inside the car hatch and one out.

Basically all I did was disconnect the motor and slide the mechanism up or down the rail until it lined up with the hatch to be closed all the way, i then marked it and permanently fastened the mechanism to the rail with some screws. The trunk release and still works, but the hatch just doesn't raise up the "whopping" 1"-2" that it did before, and you have to close the trunk yourself.

That was my solution, and it's worked flawlessly for three years now.

Those motors are pretty useless anyways, unless your trying to keep it totally stock for shows or something, but I didn't want to spend that much money.

Dave

 

Hey all,
I just figured it out.First I made sure that the motor worked by running a hot wire to the power supply of the motor. I crossed my fingers and closed the hatch. It worked. Then I traced the coloured wire back to under the dash. After spending hours trying to sort out which wire did what, I found a plug that wasn't connected to anything that had the same colour coded wire. It turns out that it isn't a plug, but a fuse holder. I popped in a 15amp fuse and everything worked as it should. As far as trying to keep it stock for shows, my car is far from showcase material. I just like the things that are suppose to be on the car, to work properly.