My battery died while the hatch was open and now the latch is in the down position and the motor won't bring it back up...I can't close my hatch and I have lots of expensive parts in the car in a very unsafe area. Someone please help! I already tried hooking up another battery to the car, the release works, but the motor won't come up to meet the hatch!!!

 

The motor worked fine up until this point if anyones wondering...

 

ummmm If I'm correct with another battery in the car wouldnt you only have to put the key in and turn it as if you were opening it as normal or push the hatch button on the dash, then just close the hatch as normal???? Or is there something I'm not seeing here?

Kyle

 

That's what I thought, but for some reason the motor doesn't energize back up when I hit the release. I know its not a power issue, everything else on the car works...

 

I might have damaged something while I had it open and the battery was dead....I was banging on the spoiler to get a bolt out....nothing looks broken, and it unlatches fine, but still no power. How do I tell if its damaged? Will the latch be damaged, or the motor, or what?

 

The solution is simple. First let me explain what has happened. The pull-down motor is started by the striker-sensing switch. It senses that the hatch hook is present to lower the unit. During the down-cycle that switch HAS to be pressed. If the switch is realeased mid-cycle it will stop and will not start again until the switch is again pressed. Normally the hatch hook latches and the unit cycles all the way down. When it reaches the bottom of the cycle it flips the reversing switch to turn off the power to the motor. For the up-cycle, the latch is released and the hatch hook moves away from the striker-sensing switch. This starts the up-cycle. The unit continue powering up until the reversing switch is flipped the other direction shutting off the cycle. The unit will not shut off the motor during the up-cycle, (even if the striker-sensing switch is again pressed) until the reversing switch is tripped.

Ok, function explained, on to the solution. There are a few things that could have happened in your case.

1. The first thing to check is that you still have power to the hatch pull-down motor. The hatch solenoid release and the pull-down motor are on two separate fused circuits. On Camaro the 20 amp fuse for the pull-down motor is in the #3 position (top row, third column from the left). On Firebird the fuse it located in an in-line fuse holder adjacent to the fuse block. If the fuse tests good with a continuity test, then remove the hatch surround trim and un-plug the red with white stripe wire from the blue wire and check if there is +12v. Also check that the gound wire is still connected to the body just below the hatch pull-down motor. If both this all tests out fine then continue to #2.

2. The second thing that could have happend is that the striker-sensing switch is bad or beginning to go bad. It didn't sense that the hatch hook was released, so it never started the up-cycle. On 1990 and early 1991 models it is easier to diagnose a bad striker-sensing switch since it also turns on and off the hatch light (no manual hatch switch).

3. Another thing that can happen is that the unit didn't flip the reversing switch to shut off the motor to shut off the down cycle. This can commonly happen if the hatch pull-down motor is installed too low onto the body or if the hatch seal has been replaced. In both cases the pull-down motor will stall out trying to compress the hatch seal and The didn't latch, yet the striker-sensing switch was pressed by the hook. The unit powered down to a mid-stroke position. The unit will still be powered, which will either can burn up the motor or kill the battery.

4. The symptoms you describe could also be caused by the unit being tuck mid-cycle. As I previously mentioned if the striker-sensing switch is released mid-cycle the unit stops. All you need to do to re-set it is reach in and press the striker-sensing switch with your finger or a screwdriver. Keep it pressed until you hear the CLICK of the reversing switch bing flipped, then release the switch. The motor should power up all the way. You'll hear another CLICK as the reversing switch is again flipped ending the up-cycle.

Good luck,

Lon

 

Great, that's exactly what I was looking for, I'll check it out tomorrow. Thanks!

 

I feel dumb....pushed the switch in the latch and the motor reversed and cycled back up. Thanks guys!

 

.........don't worry....i did the EXACT same thing