Tailgate won’t drop

Hello y’all
I need a little help, I recently bought a 1986 Pontiac Parisienne Wagon, a few days after purchase I realized that the magic tailgate wont drop, the window works just fine, and it opens sideways without any troubles. I Have no idea how to fix it so I can drop the gate down, can anyone help ?

 

The window has to be open all the way. There is a switch mechanism that the window trips as it goes down to make the latch fold down instead of open sideways. I haven't had one of these open in about 20 years, but I had a wagon that did the exact same thing and I was able to get the panel off the back and find that the switch mechanism had been dislodged, which required re-positioning and it worked again.

 

You are pulling on the handle on the INSIDE of the gate, aren't you?

 

He'd have to. It sounds like the driver's side upper latch, or both upper latches, if it a window problem, aren't releasing. However, I thought the window interlock was mechanical, not electrical.

 

I don’t know about that, the window seems to be all the way down, but maybe the switch broke loose

 

Yes I am

 

I heard that the both latches are synchronized with a cable, and that you’d have to fix that
I dont know if its mechanical or electrical

 

I distinctly remember it being mechanical, but as I said it's been a LONG time since I had one apart. There are 2 striker lock mechanisms: one on the left and one on the right that have to release, the inside handle to fold it down operates both of them BUT as I said the window has a mechanical interlock that will trip to allow operation. The outer handle only operates the right side.

I had the exact opposite problem: the outer handle wouldn't work and only the inner one did. I had to pull the cover off and fix it. It was a mechanical piece that had become dislodged. The panel is held on by nylon clips at the bottom and it folds over the top of the tailgate, it's easy to take off and see inside what is causing the problem. Your problem is even easier: you can open it with the glass fully open and look inside. The same mechanism setup is also responsible for preventing the window glass from being able to go up when the tailgate is folded down (if I recall correctly).

The factory service manual that I have sucks for this section, likely because mine is one of the last printed before they discontinued the body style (1990). A 1977-1978 one may have better instructions if you can find someone who has a copy.

 

I have my Chilton manuals, but I don't know if they have wagon tailgate diagrams.

 

Sorry, no diagrams, but I accessed Chilton through the local library, and I snapped two screenshots for replacing the Right upper and lower locks. At least they tell you what to look at, and yes, everything's controlled with rods, not cables.

 

Actually, I think I screenshot the same thing, but each were marked differently. Hopefully that will help.

 

Thank you so much I think this will help a lot ,

 

In the service manual I had were no instructions to do this, I’m glad you found this

wow thank you so much. When you say “with the glass fully open” you mean the glass in its down position right ? There are no good instructions in my manual either

 

Roll the window fully down into the tailgate, open the door to the side, remove the trim piece, roll the window fully out of the tailgate, and you should be able to see inside without issue.

 

86parisienne, Think the postings above may solve your problem. If not, the following taken from my 1987 Pontiac Service Manual may help - "If the gate does not open as a gate there are 3 possible causes : 1. Glass block out lever of upper right lock not activated - a. Check to see if the glass block out rod is installed and attached to the lever of the upper right lock. b. check if glass is in full-down position. 2. lower right lock not latched - a. Open as a door and slam it to latch. b. If the lock is still unlatched, the lower striker should be adjusted. c. Open as a door, check operation of lower lock by manually latching. Then activate outside handle to unlatch. 3. Synchronization (adjusting) switch at remote control not engaged. This condition can be determined by trying to unlatch the upper locks. Only the upper right lock will unlatch." If his is occurring the correction is pages long and may be too complicated for us amateurs but maybe somebody on this site can walk you thru it. Good luck.