crazym0nkey

Hey guys, I opened my trunk today and then tried to close it, but it just bounced right off the latch. Thought the latch was just stuck, so I looked in the part of the latch connected to the top of the trunk and this spring was just sitting in there not connected to anything.



I don't have my helms manual with me at work, but was wondering is this an easy fix? I tried to move the latch with my finger, but it wouldn't budge until I touched a metal piece on the left side of the top latch. My release button from the driver's side door still works.

01tl4tl

I think you have to remove the trunk lid- liner panel to access the motor and release mechanism

crazym0nkey

I looked in my Helms manual and it only describes how to replace the whole latch, and doesn't show whats actually in the latch. I'm guessing the latch is only sold as a whole unit so there are no detailed diagrams of the individual pieces?

crazym0nkey

So I had some time tonight to check it out. Took the trunk liner off (damn those clips are a pain). Then took off the trunk cable and power off the latch and unbolted it. I'm not sure if I fixed it right by putting the spring in there, but it seems to be working and there were only two logical places I felt where the spring went.

I believe the spring keeps an unlocking mechanism from locking the latch. Excuse the paint. When you pull the trunk opener, the lever in the following picture (long line) pushes both the latch hook and the unlocking mechanism which is pointed to by the arrow on the right side. Inside of the latch assembly, the unlocking mechanism actually extends to the very left and there is a notch there and that is where I saw the most obvious sign of where one side of the spring went to.



This mechanism was just flopping around aimlessly without the spring so I guess the spring had to connect to something else. My best guess was the lever because it had a round peg on at the end of it that just so happened to fit the other side of the spring, quite snugly. My belief is if the unlocking mechanism wasn't on tension, the latch would close but won't lock and would just give you the feeling of closing the trunk but not locking which is what I felt.

Now I'm not sure if that was correct to do, but it seems to be working. This is how it looks when you pull the trunk opener and the spring is somewhat exposed.



If you think this is wrong, please let me know. Wasn't able to find any pictures online of the assembly in detail to compare what I did. Going to leave the trunk liner off for now and see if this fix doesn't break in the next few days.

01tl4tl

with little lost springs the best thing to do is exactly as you proceeded!
find something- a hole or a pin that it hooks on- then find wear marks and appropriate length area with hole or pin = you are the new guru of trunk latch!