DaveP
Active member
Even after 20 years of owning and working on SyTy's I still manage to learn new things for old problems. We've discussed the weak hatch pop that doesn't release the glass. Either with the dash switch or the fob. My 93 developed this maladie over time, and now that I'm driving it again, it only made a "click" and would never pop. Today, I messed with it.
I'll save the time of reading all I tried to figure out the actual problem. I'll also leave out how this circuit works. The relay only passes 12V through to the solenoid if the transmission is in Park or Neutral. But putting 12V directly to the solenoid worked every time. Shorting the relay did not. Jumping the black wire at the relay directly to a POWER tap on the fuse box did. I concluded that there was a voltage drop in the power to the switches.
EDIT: Because there are other possible conditions that could cause a weak pop other than the one the fix below will address, try the following test to be sure the relay fix below will work:
Remove the hatch relay.
Take a piece of 14ga wire and jump from the black wire directly to the red-"L" power tap on the fuse box. If the hatch pops, my fix will work. If it doesn't pop, there are other problems like bad ground to the tailgate, bad solenoid, or connections/wiring to the rear.
Here's my "fix":
Remove the stock Hatch relay. (Located about 6" up the harness from the fuse box).
Take a 12V 30Amp 5-pole relay and put 6" wires on it ending with Male .250 tab connectors. Connect the relay as follows:
85 to orn/blk on hatch relay connector.
86 to brown on hatch relay connector.
87 to black wire on hatch relay connector.
30 to a fuse tap on the fusebox PWR denoted by a little "L" of red. 2nd column from right, looking forward.
87a = Not used.
If I didn't have so much tape wrapped on the metal hoop, it would pop every time. But usually at least on the 2nd try. Soooo much better than not at all. Took less than 30 minutes with parts from my stash, once I narrowed down what the problem was.
I still enjoy learning, and solving problems. Thanks for reading.
I'll save the time of reading all I tried to figure out the actual problem. I'll also leave out how this circuit works. The relay only passes 12V through to the solenoid if the transmission is in Park or Neutral. But putting 12V directly to the solenoid worked every time. Shorting the relay did not. Jumping the black wire at the relay directly to a POWER tap on the fuse box did. I concluded that there was a voltage drop in the power to the switches.
EDIT: Because there are other possible conditions that could cause a weak pop other than the one the fix below will address, try the following test to be sure the relay fix below will work:
Remove the hatch relay.
Take a piece of 14ga wire and jump from the black wire directly to the red-"L" power tap on the fuse box. If the hatch pops, my fix will work. If it doesn't pop, there are other problems like bad ground to the tailgate, bad solenoid, or connections/wiring to the rear.
Here's my "fix":
Remove the stock Hatch relay. (Located about 6" up the harness from the fuse box).
Take a 12V 30Amp 5-pole relay and put 6" wires on it ending with Male .250 tab connectors. Connect the relay as follows:
85 to orn/blk on hatch relay connector.
86 to brown on hatch relay connector.
87 to black wire on hatch relay connector.
30 to a fuse tap on the fusebox PWR denoted by a little "L" of red. 2nd column from right, looking forward.
87a = Not used.
If I didn't have so much tape wrapped on the metal hoop, it would pop every time. But usually at least on the 2nd try. Soooo much better than not at all. Took less than 30 minutes with parts from my stash, once I narrowed down what the problem was.
I still enjoy learning, and solving problems. Thanks for reading.
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