Hatch Install

[Strippt88]

Friend asked, easiest way to switch out his hatch? Never done this one, anyone got a clue? Leave hinges on the car, or hinges off too, switch to the other hatch, then reinstall?

 

[cenok is family]

take hinges off too since those bolts are the easiest to get to when removing the hatch. the harness for the third brake light, tag lights and whatnot enter in through the hatch on the driver's side, top corner, run down the hatch to the driver's side lower corner where all the harness' plug into each other. when you open the hatch, take out the large, oval, rubber grommet in the driver's side lower corner of the hatch, underneath the spoiler, to see all the harness connectors. it's pretty straight forward. you have to disconnect the harness' inside the hatch, then after you disconnect the hatch supports and hinges, you just pull the hatch off. the part of the harness that runs from the car to the top corner of the hatch, then down to the lower corner stays with the car. any questions, let me know

 

[dcurtis]

While people are on this subject, My hatch isn't in line when I lower it to the closed position, I removed the striker so I could check it while in the closed position and it is off to the left about 1/2 an inch +or- a little bit, is there a way to correct this, which bolts should I loosen to fix it? It still closes fine other than the fact that when I close it I have to push down and to the right to get it to lock, I have the striker adjusted to where the hatch looks in line when it is closed.

 

[cenok is family]

While people are on this subject, My hatch isn't in line when I lower it to the closed position, I removed the striker so I could check it while in the closed position and it is off to the left about 1/2 an inch +or- a little bit, is there a way to correct this, which bolts should I loosen to fix it? It still closes fine other than the fact that when I close it I have to push down and to the right to get it to lock, I have the striker adjusted to where the hatch looks in line when it is closed.

is the whole hatch out of line or just the lock mechinism on the hatch? iirc, you can adjust the position of the locking mechinism on the hatch without having to move the hatch around. if not then you're going to have to adjust the whole hatch a bit. when you open your hatch, look up to the top and you'll see the 4 bolts holding the hatch on at the hinges. just loosen those and adjust accordingly. i don't know how much adjustment you can get out of it like that though.

 

[dcurtis]

Yeah, it's the hatch itself. I took off the strikir so the hatch would just sit and it's about half an inch off to the left, thanks for the help

 

[Strippt88]

Thanks for the help, gentlemen. This seemed like an easy procedure, til I thought about it, when I figured it could get ugly in a big hurry, if done wrong!