Rear Lift Gate Latch

[jeremywatco]

Good Evening,

A guy I know who works at a local Bronco restoration shop stopped by today to shoot the breeze. While chatting he looked over at the lift gate on our '67 and said the latch lever didnt look correct. He went and fiddled with it and said its supposed to turn one way to open it and the other way expands it all the way into the top to keep it from rattling around. Mine only opens it and then when closing its only extending like 1/8 of an inch into the opening. The lift gate rattles all over.

After he left I took it apart and found there is no way for this to happen, the strikers cant move out any further than they are. I watched a youtube video on taking apart the lift gate, in the video the guys move out when turning the level on way and then retract the other. It appears my lift gate hardware is totally different.....

See these pictures... any thoughts?

 

[thegreatjustino]

The handle rotates less than 90 degrees. Points to the right when closed, rotates up to compress the springs and release the latches, and automatically returns to pointing right when you let go of it due to spring tension. Every EB hard top I've had over the past 20 years (at least a dozen of them) worked this way.

 

[Slowleak]

I can’t tell from the pictures if yours is assembled properly. It is possible for them to behave as you describe if the handle mechanism is not installed correctly. On mine, the rod to the passenger side is installed in the hole at the top of the plate behind the handle. With the handle horizontal, the posts should be fully extended. That’s the “lock position”. With the handle vertical , the posts extend a little and are only held out by the springs. This is the “slam close position”. You rotate the handle further left to open.