Intermittent hatch not opening

[ozarkmud]

After a few years of 100% trouble free hatch operation, I'm very recently had a few instances of the hatch refusing to open. Or, maybe the first time or two, I could coax it. Yesterday, I could not.

The outside handle seemed stuck, or to end up stuck, in the opening position. It wouldn't go back. And the inside handle didn't work at all. Lock was not activated, nor the child lock.

I've searched a bit and not found any threads on this. After a drive, the hatch started working perfectly fine again. Pretty odd.

Could someone advise me on where to begin? Is this maybe something in the jaw mechanism that I can spray out/lube up? Or more in the handle+cable setup?

 

[Old Nick]

After a few years of 100% trouble free hatch operation, I'm very recently had a few instances of the hatch refusing to open. Or, maybe the first time or two, I could coax it. Yesterday, I could not.

The outside handle seemed stuck, or to end up stuck, in the opening position. It wouldn't go back. And the inside handle didn't work at all. Lock was not activated, nor the child lock.

I've searched a bit and not found any threads on this. After a drive, the hatch started working perfectly fine again. Pretty odd.

Could someone advise me on where to begin? Is this maybe something in the jaw mechanism that I can spray out/lube up? Or more in the handle+cable setup?

Get inside your truck. Remove the grab handle and then remove the trim on the upper tail gait. This will give you access to the lock mechanism(s). Open the lower lift gate. Then, get someone on the outside of the truck to actuate the lift gate handle. You ought to be able to track down what's wrong/binding. I replaced nearly all of the guts in my wife's rig with a donor's parts after the exterior handle broke off in my hand... lol.

 

[Old Nick]

Get inside your truck. Remove the grab handle and then remove the trim on the lower tail gait. This will give you access to the lock mechanism(s). Open the lift gate and actuate the handle on the lower gate. Then, get someone on the outside of the truck to actuate the lift gate handle. You ought to be able to track down what's wrong/binding. I replaced nearly all of the guts in my wife's rig with a donor's parts after the exterior handle broke off in my hand... lol.

And, use the door lock switch on the driver's door. You'll see if the automatic locking mechanism is working as it should.

 

[ozarkmud]

Thank you! Good to know.

Yeah, probably worth it to have a look at everything. I was hoping it might just be a quick clean/lube on the outside.

 

[Old Nick]

Thank you! Good to know.

Yeah, probably worth it to have a look at everything. I was hoping it might just be a quick clean/lube on the outside.

It might be it’s just good to get in there and have a look at what’s going on.

 

[Old Nick]

Thank you! Good to know.

Yeah, probably worth it to have a look at everything. I was hoping it might just be a quick clean/lube on the outside.

Let us know how it goes.

There's a pretty detailed schematic of the lift/tail gates in the 80 series "Body" FSM.

If you need to replace parts, be sure to take pictures of everything. There are a LOT of mechanical connections in the upper gate. Getting them back together in the right order is essential. It's not hard, just fiddly. You'll get it sorted.