2002 explorer tailgate prob ??

[wodahs]

this may be in the wrong place , if so sorry
but my tail gate wont open
went to open the rear of the wagon on friday ( the full door not the half ) with the whole car unlocked and the handle just seemed to bine up and wouldnt open so rechecked it was actually unlocked and then retried to open the door but same thing so opened the half door and checked the manual unlock for fully unlocking but still didnt want to work , can see any thing jammed in the lock or any reason why it wont open
had opened it a few days before with no problems and shut ok

any one with any ideas or had this problem and know what the rectification is or just how to now get the door open ?

any and all info appreciated

thanks nathan

 

[EasyRhino]

Have not seen nor heard of this problem on these, but I'll give you a bump. Any chance that something is stuck in the latches causing it to bind up?

 

[wodahs]

thanks for the reply
cant see any thing sitting in the latch at the moment and when last open hadnt noticed anything either
i dont carry anything small enough to actually drop in there

but will be trying to get it open on sat even if im working at it blindly its got to be something simple

 

[wodahs]

well yesterday i stripped down the tailgate to fix it
the mechanism is mechanical to start then cable to the latch , and where the outer cable fastens and the inner cable pulls to was sitting my problem stopping the inner cable from full movement
you'd never pick it , expect it or even set it up
but there sitting on the inner cable jamming every thing up was a peach seed
and dont even ask how it got in to the tail gate i just dont know

so alls working good again

 

[rrgone]

No way! I've gotta see that to believe it, you did take a picture? lol.

Was it a big problem getting the door trim panel out of the way with it closed? Thanks for the follow up.

 

[alexk]

Something like that happened to mine except after I opened it it wouldnt shut, the handle did the same thing yours did. I took a steam cleaner to it and stuck it up everyhole back there and eventually it worked.

 

[breidell]

how did you get the handle off i removed the trim but it looks like the handle is held in place by two rivets? is it ok to drill them out to take the handle off so i can try to see why theres no tension to the handle?