I recently had a problem with my hatch where it would not open at all. I took the thing apart to investigate and here is my procedure to fix the damn thing.
First you want to get WD-40, a flat head screw driver, some paper towels and turn on the radio.
next, you want to take off the paneling. There are 8 retaining clips that need to be turned with the screw driver 90 degrees to pop out.
once you get that open, you want to twist off the bracket that holds the lock cover on. Just twist the spring steel bracket to the right and it will slide apart. It's a little tough, but pry it good and it will come off.
pop the back cover off and check out the mechanism. The white plastic part (number 1) is the mechanism that enables/disables the latch. Spray everything down with WD-40, use papertowels to keep from soaking under the cover. Slide the latch back and fourth and loosen it up. Make sure the plastic clip on the vertical bar (number 2) is in a position just over part #1. This will allow the latch to grab when unlocked.
You can pull up part #2 to open the hatch if you haven't been able to do so. Make sure you degrease the actual latch because this can stick and cause excess stress on the part #2.
Finally, degrease the handle from inside and out. The easier everything moves, the less likely it will be that the latch will stop working again. Clean all of the WD-40 off of your bumper, and make sure everything is working the way you want before you reinstall all of the parts.
Start to finish, this takes about 45 minutes. It's an easy project, and if you were as annoyed with not having a hatch as I was, you want to do this. Good luck
-Tom
29-10-04
directions on fixing any hatch locking problems.
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