Hi All I'm having trouble opening my tailgate downwards as I understand its supposed to. Can anyone confirm what i need to pull/push etc......thx might sound like an obvious question for which I apologize in advance!
To open the tailgate like a truck tailgate, you need to roll the rear window all the way down and then pull the handle on the inside of the gate. It then should fold down. If it wasn't used in a while, it would be a good idea to soak all the latches in WD-40 to free them up because they like to get sticky after not being used in a while.
Step one, get a Fisher Body Manual for your car, as this will provide the drawings and procedure for troubleshooting and adjusting the tailgate. There is a blockout rod inside the tailgate on the passenger side. This rod prevents the gate from opening downward unless the window is all the way down. On my 86, this rod had jumped out of place, preventing the gat from opening that way. I simply replaced the rod and it worked fine.
Thanks, I did try that but the middle handle doesnt seem to do much. From what I can see it seems to connect to the top locks on the door but the one on the passenger side is locked in place with 3 large torx screws.....is this some kind of 'de-option' to stop the tailgate dropping down...? thx very much
I don't fully understand what you are saying.....my 87's tail gate works fine so I've never looked at it. Tomorow when I'm doing nothing at work I'll hvave a better look in the day lite. But by the sounds of things the other guys have you coverd....block out rod....get a manual
your window has to be all the way inside the tailgate for it to release the tailgate handle so you can drop the tailgate. so to try it out, you may have to help the motor push the window all the way down, and if it works , then pull the trim off and lube everything. both my wagons had window track issues which wouldnt lower the window enough to release the interior tailgate handle
Have you removed the inner trim panel and looked inside the tailgate? As I noted above, there is a lockout rod that prevents the tailgate from opening as a gate unless the window glass is completely down. If the glass is not all the way down, if the linkage is out of adjustment, or if the lockout rod I mentioned is not correctly in place, the tailgate will not open down, only as a door. I went through and fixed exactly this problem on my 86, which has the same mechanism and the same tailgate. If the inside center handle is not moving much, the lockout has prevented the tailgate from opening as a door. Again, you need to remove the inner trim panel and look at the mechanism inside the door. Oh, and buying a Fisher Body Manual is a good way to understand how it works.
Thanks to everyone for strategy on this, I now understand how this all links together. Should kill a few hours this weekend! I will order the Fisher manual too, another automotive book for the collection lol 'Huggy' comes back from a trans job this Friday, looking forward to chugging around the village.
