I wouldn't say I was off, Just went through this on my '94 which has the
same style latches as my '00. Pulled the access panel for he scissor
mechanism and it was working great, but lubed it anyways. On my '94, it was
only the passenger side that wasn't latching. Pulled the latch mechanism
out greased it up with the white lithium grease and worked great after that.
I couldn't get the stuff sprayed in where it needed to go without pulling
the mechanism out. It's not hard to do.
brian cropp
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-dakota-truck@bent.twistedbits.net [mailto:owner-dakota-
> truck@bent.twistedbits.net] On Behalf Of Michael Maskalans
> Sent: Friday, October 01, 2010 10:34 AM
> To: dakota-truck@dakota-truck.net
> Subject: Re: DML: Getting tired of the single action tailgate.....
>
>
>
> On 1-Oct, 2010, at 08:09 , Jim Zito wrote:
>
> > Tailgate on the Dakota doesn't like to play anymore, I open it and
> generally
> > the handle stays up...I can deal with that but often times, even with
> the
> > handle "re-cocked" it still won't close.
>
> Brian and Don are off.
>
> I've never had the newer style side latches not reset. you can test them
> by actuating them with the little lever you're pushing to see if they're
> sticky.
>
> The issue is the scissor mechanism in the handle. I had my cables fail
> and smashed my handle to bits just after diagnosing this myself so I never
> got a chance to try fixing it, but lots of light oil to free it up and
> some white lithium to keep it free may do the trick.
>
> the three T45 (give or take 5) screws allow the handle to be removed.
> There is no access panel. There should be enough room to remove the
> linkage rods from the handle without pulling the latches. The bezel
> around the handle just snaps in and out.
>
> Hope you can get it freed up, it's an expensive part even from RockAuto
> (like $75, compared to $30 for other models). Or at least it was 3 years
> ago or so when I shopped it.
>
> Mike
>
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> 01:34:00
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