Yeah I know there is a million posts and I looked thru half.

So things look to be cycling now but the only thing that is not happening is the latch release is not pushing in the latch all the way. I tried pulling the receiver out but it would not come out. I think I know the reason to this now but I would like to know what needs to be done to get the release to make contact enough to push in the latch all the way.

TIA

 

The most helpful advice I came across was to tape a piece of paper across the receiver, and coat the tip of the latch with grease. Then lower the hatch gently, and observe the mark it leaves on the paper. It was immediately obvious to me how to adjust my latch so that it would lower in the center of the aperture. Once I did that (in my case, it involved packing the back of the latch, so that it inclined further forward), I had no more problems.

 

I'll try it now.

 

Okay I tried it and it is a good test to check alignment. I now belive my trouble is the nylon is worn down to much. I an archive search I saw one that looked mine and someone said it was badly worn. I will have to get together with Mr Jim for the replacement. I will update if that worked.

 

There are four possible fixes:
1. Pack behind the nylon insert to make it thicker towards the front of the car so as the actuator cam can release the hatch.

2. Build up the actuator cam by cutting and fitting an overlay onto the cam and bend it to fit the profile of cam and this will release the hatch.

3. I removed the nylon insert and cut the back section out and then fabricated a thicher back section ( I used a nylon cutting board as the source of nylon) and secured it in positon with silicone sealant.

4. Purchase a new hatch release from you local Porsche Centre as they don't sell a replacement insert.

Note 1 & 2 are more of a temporary repair, as the old insert will continue to wear and excessive clearance will cause the hatch to fail to release.

With 3, I made the insert a little thicker to take up all the excess clearance and it has now been operating successfully for many years.

Tails 1990 928 S4 Auto.

 

Joe - take it apart and use some strong nylon cable ties around the nylon bushing that is moved by the actuator motor. You can fit them in and get the adjuster portion (the lump) to be out of the action - use 3 or 4 side by side - they are strong and pretty slipery so they worked fine for me. This is a clear design flaw - a little wear and it becomes useless - till the cable ties arrive!! - its worked well for me for >>12months and its cheap and easy to redo. Try it - real cheap fix - no one will every know!

Alan

 

Can you guys supply some sort of pic. Im having trouble visualizing this.

 

Joe,
Here you go - ideally you'd see the actuator out of the car but it works and I'm not messing with it!



You can see from this where they go - obviously I have 3 in there - 4 of this size would fit here too.

You may need to get mini ties since they are a little thinner and this has to loop the whole cam thing - so must make it through the hinge clearance part.

Of course there is no permanent modification - if it doesn't work for you snip them back off - back to the way you were!

Alan

 

Thank Alan. I see exactly now.

 

My '86 hatch motor spun, but did not open the hatch. I tried everything, adjusting, shimming, filing, then finally realized I could just put zip ties on the worn pot metal cam. I thought I was clever, but then I found this thread - it's all been done before.

You can adjust the stroke of the release motor by adjusting the bracket via the 10mm bolts pictured. Down is deeper, up is shallower. I started at the top, and went down until the hatch just opened. Too deep, and you'll hear some groaning.



In reading through the old posts I also realized that I was missing the 1 amp hatch motor return fuse, which made the now working hatch release even better (start power comes from the interior lights).