Tailgate Fun - Little help?

So took my two boys, my friend Clare, and her three kids to the lake Sunday evening. Towed the boat with the Roady....was 112 degrees, no joke, hottest day EVER ON RECORD for Austin Texas...what a crazy crazy summer this has been!

Anyway as usual the Roady towed great, 70mph and temp gauge never got close to even mid-point warm on the gauge...just tracks down the highway like it's on rails. Love that car.

When I pulled the boat out of the lake after a day of water fun I went to lay the tailgate down. I don't like to open it sideways with the trailer hooked up for fear of it hitting the trailer and denting the door. Anyway I popped open the glass and grabbed the release handle to lay it flat, and nothing happend...no resistance at all, like the door was locked. I pulled up the other handle to open the door to the side, and the door popped right open. I slammed it, tried to lay it flat again...nothing...so ended up opening it to the side and carfully wedging coolers, towels, life jackets and finally kids into the 3rd row.

Now when I got to Clare's house to drop them off, the gate worked perfectly, opened down flat just like normal. SO I figured something just got stuck in there. Got home that night and it still worked fine....good deal, put it out of my mind.

So yesterday after work it was only 105 degrees...so I decided to take advantage of the cool afternoon (!) and parked the car under the trees next to the house and washed all the kiddos hand prints and lake parking lot dust off, and then pulled out my shop vac to do the insides....and the tail gate would not lay down again. Doh! Opens to the side fine still though.

So I've not taken the door trim off yet. Anyone else have this issue?? Appreciate any tips before I tear into it. It's on my to-do list for the upcoming holiday weekend.

I never had issues with the gates on our 78 Safari, 86 Electra, and 89 Custom Cruiser. GM must have cheaped out when they took the power windows out of the tail gates.

As always thanks for the tips in advance!

-Mike

slam it closed,. it;ll be fine,(i mean slam it like a man and you're angry at it,.not some weal assed texan type slam,.).
they are often like that,.drown both latches top and bottom in wd40,.

Nick

"no resistance at all '... You mean like nothing is connected?
Maybe it isn't anymore, or the heat has misaligned things some how. If it was 112 in the shade, how hot and twisted were the parts inside the door? IDOHNO?

Or to paraphrase Nick's point somewhat differently, quit being a damn pansyass and slam the damn thing a few times. It may not fix it but you'll feel better.

What Nick said! I have had that problem, if it happens again, push the bottom right hand corner of the tailgate in.

Tom C.

Thanks for the tips all! Will lube the heck out of the latches and see what happens.....and close the gate a little harder than normal!

-Mike

I had that problem on mine it is the right lower latch pin adjustment, that is why when you push in on lower right corner it works like Tom said.


Clint

I think the rod came off. I need to pull the panel and look in there. It only opens to the side now, feels like the cable or rod connected to the release handle to lay it down is broken.

Normally I don't put repairs like this off, but it was so hot when it happened I just lived with it. It's finally out the 100's, but I looked at that handle and it's starting to crack the way my other one did. I'm not going to try to remove it until I have a spare in my hand, and have not been to the salvage yards yet.

On the list!

-Mike

There is a little plastic clip that attaches the rod and acts as a bushing to keep it from rattling. That might be broken. Salvage yards are your friend!!

BigBlackBeaSSt wrote:

There is a little plastic clip that attaches the rod and acts as a bushing to keep it from rattling. That might be broken. Salvage yards are your friend!!

I bet that's all that it is. Thanks!

Ok better late than never. It's finally not HOT. Was in the 60's this evening...nice.

Tore into the gate tonight. Sure enough, the little rod that hangs down from the release handle was not attached to the slotted release mechanism inside the door. I was surprised to see a broken plastic zip-tie still partly attached to the mechanism....say what? That was a rig job by the previous owner! I hadn't noticed that when I'd replace the lower tailgate hinge a while back.

So I knew what kind of attachment clip was "supposed" to be there, and dug through my parts bins and drawers looking for one. Nope. I was about to go to Autozone to search through the "Help" section, when I had the idea to look inside the door. I removed the two metal covers to get inside the tailgate, and felt around inside the door, and can you believe it, the clip was in there! There's a rattle, right??

The clip was not exactly what I'd pictured, it's metal, not plastic. I bent the clip a little so it would really snap tightly onto the rod, and it went right together. Put a little grease on the assembly and then buttoned it all back together.






It's all good! Gotta enjoy the little victories!

-Mike

I think I finally had to wire the pushrods together. They kept popping out of the stupid plastic clips . . . I got real proficient at taking that door apart.

Nick Danger wrote:

I think I finally had to wire the pushrods together. They kept popping out of the stupid plastic clips . . . I got real proficient at taking that door apart.

I hope I'm done taking it apart for a while myself....

Cant believe it,I actually see a little dirt on Mike's wagon.Mark today on the calender!
Jim

88vmax wrote:

I had that problem on mine it is the right lower latch pin adjustment, that is why when you push in on lower right corner it works like Tom said.


Clint

That's what I did on my "sticking" latches. Now it's all good ... but for how long ?