lutzam

my rear hatch switch had always been a little buggy but a week ago it failed on me. It is so annoying getting out of the car with a key to open the hatch. I checked the wire under the hatch opening motor (behind the carpet). There were four wires and only two of them had flowing electricity when i pushed the button. Does anyone know how to fix this or should i go to the mechanic. Thanks once again for all your help.

lutzam 86'944

Hans

Lutzam
Have a look here
<a href="http://www.pelicanparts.com/944/electrical/944_84_5_2.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.pelicanparts.com/944/electrical/944_84_5_2.jpg</a>

You should have power on 53a
Pressing the button will show power on terminal 53. (if not: switch dead)
The motor should start moving and the internal contact 53a - 31b will be made.
This is an contact on the gear mechanism.
Can easily get realy dirty in a couple of years.
When opening the gear, mark EVERYTHING in the rest position, relative to the motor housing.
If you dont, the rest position ( breaking of internal contact) is lost and you might end up with an permanently un-locked rear.

Try following: jump 53 - 53a. Motor should start rotating, if not: motor dead.
If yes, internal contact dirty / gone / ...

WARNING
If you jump 53 - 53a, than keep your fingers away from the mechanism.
The reductor ratio is such that the flimsy power output from the motor is more than suffisient to cut screw drivers in half, you dont want to know what it does to fingers!!!!
TakeCare

Thaddeus

Yes, I was displeased to find last week that the electric release isn't working on the driver's side, the passenger side pin releases. Tried lubricating, but no luck. Any suggestions?

Thaddeus

Hans

Thaddeus
IIRC drive motor drives the passenger side lock via an bowden type cable (like used on bike brakes).
There is an simular interconn cable from the right to the left lock.

If the hatch still opens normally with the key, then probably the cables have streched themselves passed the acceptable limits in the lifetime of operation.

You might want to try and reduce the slack on this second cable.
The drive motor cable MUST have some slack, or the system will pull it apart with the first attempt of (motorised) opening of the hatch.

From memmory (so probably wrong!!): there is an ajuster screw (drilled through bolt) in the pass side lock section.
If not: try inserting an 3 mm washer that has been cut open with an miniature hack saw, so you can get the inner cable in the washer.
Put this between the outer cable and the stop.
You may need to disconnect the cable on one end for this.
TakeCare

sm

I had the same problem a while ago and fixed it. The motors are pretty strong, so this may solve your problem:
-------------------------------------
Problem solved...
First of all, thanks for the help Hans.
The problem was that the switch's contact point was worn out. When the hatch switch is hit, a round 'ball' is pushed onto a flat piece of metal. Well, that 'ball' wore the flat piece so far down that contact wasn't being made when I hit the switch. So I just moved all the pieces of metal to the other half of the switch (the switch has two identical halves, but only one half is utilized) and resoldered the wires. Now I just have to fix the snapped cable...sigh.

Thanks again.

sm
------------------------------------------

Thaddeus

Hans:

I looked at the mechanism, and found that I have solid rods running from the center actuator to each lock, and a cable from the motor to the center actuator with a cable adjuster. I increased the cable tension just a tiny bit. The problem is solved!

Thanks for the help.

Thaddeus