Hi All

I have a 89 firebird which doesn't have the rear hatch release button. It seems that the wiring harness and pulldown motor is actually fitted to an 89 car, so I have obtained the hatch release button and the necessary relay.

Do I have to do anything to the hatch release mechanism ? The reason I ask is that I have to use the key to open the hatch. Should fitting the button and relay be enough ?

Cheers
Geoff

 

Thats all you need. I've done it also on an 89. Mine was the 2.8 V6

Are you familiar w/ where the relay socket is? If not, it is right behind the glove folder. Just put your hand back there and feel around. Its just waiting for a relay. The switch connector is right behind the IP face plate.

You probably already knew that, but I spent a good amount of time tracing wires when I didnt need to.

Good luck
Clayton

 

I've installed the relay and release button.
It doesn't work ! I press the button and nothing happens. Should there be a light on the button ? If there is, no light comes on.

How does the hatch mechanism work ? I have to slam the hatch to close it, I assume this is not the norm. I also assume that either using the key or the button does the same thing to open/close the hatch.

Geoff

 

Ok, your hatch fuse may be blown. The fuse is at the very bottom of the fuse panel and if I remember correctly, it is covered w/ some black tape or something. Not neatly labled like the other ones. Think its a 15A.

Clayton

 

Clayton ...

I've had a quick look at the fuses, couldn't find the one you are taking about. Is it in the main cluster ? I will check again.

Geoff

 

I've had a proper look this morning. The fuse your talking about doesn't exist on my bird. I've checked my pontiac manual and the hatch release is combined with the power locks fuse, the fuse is ok.

I've also checked the hatch mechanism itself. I have a picture of a hatch mechanism and mine looks slightly different.
Take a look at this picture, The red circles shows what is different.



In the large red circle I don't have wire going in from the right and the bit the wire goes into is different. I assume this is the hatch release solenoid ?

In the other red circle, I have a block which has 2 white, 2 black, 2 blue wires and 1 brown wire which doesn't plug into anything. In the picture this plugs into something.

So what parts am I missing ? Looking at the Tech Article on this site, it mentions the hatch release solenoid is missing, but what about the differences highlighted in the second red circle ?

Geoff

 

First of all, there are two fuses for the hatch. 1 is the CTSY fuse, the other is a dedicated HATCH fuse. The hatch fuse is inline w/ that red/white wire. The CTSY fuse is the one for the orange on the relay.

The thing the wires in the small circle plug into is a relay. You kinda need that.

As far as the other, I have no idea.

Clayton

 

Ok .. I've taken some pictures of my rear hatch setup, but I can't upload them as I'm at work. I will do it tonight.

I have a red/white wire that plugs into a blue wire. The relay bit I'm missing where does that come from ?

It seems that I'm missing 2 parts now, the hatch solenoid and a wiring harness. This is turning in to a PITA !

Thanks for your help so far Clayton any other help will be greatly appreciated.
Can anyone else help ?

Geoff

 

Here are the pictures I mentioned in my last post.

My Rear Hatch ...



and here is the another



Geoff

 

I wonder why your car was more "stripped" than mine. All I had to do was add a switch and the relay.

Yours is definitely missing the solenoid and the relay. Can you get them from a junkyard there? If not, I can see if I can pull them out of my 87 that Im parting out.

Let me know.

Clayton

 

Clayton

There are only a couple of junkyards specialising in American cars in the UK, so I'm not sure how much luck I will have getting the parts. I can also enquire.

It would be most useful if you could part them out from the 87 camaro.

How do you want to proceed ?

Thanks
Geoff

 

.

 

I added the solenoid release to mine. It's not hard. Just undo the 10mm bolt and swap on the new one. Then run the wiring forward to the switch location. I have some solenoids. I suppose I need to put together instructions and make this into a kit? Another possible future product for Top-Down Solutions. Lon

 

As long as your hatch solenoid is grounded, the single wire that is coming out of the solenoid needs to be attatched to your dash switch and simply provides 12V to the solenoid. Its that simple.

Dan

 

Geoff, The relay you circled in an earlier post is for the hatch pull-down unit, not for the solenoid hatch release. It being missing may explain why your pull-down isn't working. You should get the pull-down working. The motor housing is made of plastic and won't take the stress of continuing to slam the hatch. It will break where the 3 screws mount it to the frame. Also, just a FYI, someone has replaced the hatch pull-down motor and motor housing on your car. It came with a motor that has a round cover as shown in other picture you posted. Not that that is a bad thing. The one that you have now is actually an improved design. E-mail me at topdownsolutions@yahoo.com if you need further help. I have scans of both the hatch pull-down unit and solenoid hatch release diagnosis and repair from my HELMS manual I can send you. The files are large, so it would take a few e-mails to transfer them all. Good luck, Lon.

 

The picture in the sixth post here does indeed show a red circle around the hatch release solenoid. The pulldown motor is the lower one in the photo. Your hatch release solenoid has lost a ground, lost the 12V or is just a bad solenoid. Most salvage yards sell these for $10.

Dan

 

The photo he attached as a sample has the proper gound connected. It is true that ground must be there, because the solenoid is isolated from the frame by the plastic guides. I'm curious why he posted he was having problems. He e-mailed me that he sold the car in May, long before he posted of the problems. Unless he's still trying to solve the problems for the current owner. Lon

 

Ionsal

The original post is from 2001 and I sold the car in May 2002.

Geoff

 

Thanks, now it makes sense.

 

http://www.bulldogsecurity.com/shop/mall/access3.htm

should get you working

Check with them and see if will work on a firebird or not before ordering, also www.jcwhitney.com has a kit to add a trunk release if you cant get the orginal style part, I may also have one from rebulding my pull down, I got two assemblies from the junkyard both missing different parts. Ill check tommorow if you are interested, you said you were in the UK I don't know if shipping from america would be though it may not be worth it.

 

I know it has been a while since this was talked about but i have all the parts to do the conversion EXCEPT the SILVER peice in he first picture. Where can i find that? Auto store or does it have to be a junk yard? thanks