Help With Opening My Hatch!!!!! | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Help With Opening My Hatch!!!!!

DiamondAudioTDX

New Member
Joined
June 7, 2005
Messages
3
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0
City, State
West Chicago, IL
Year, Model & Trim Level
Explorer '97 XLT
anyone have any idea how to open the rear hatch of a 97 explorer without the black hatch handel. my handel fell off and i can see a hole that it went in. i can see a piece of metal on an angel when i look through the hole. it can move up slightly but once it gets to a certain spot i cant move it anymore. then i tryed to go inside and use a coathanger to pull on what i could see to be the this metal rod that the handel would turn but i couldnt fully pop the hatch. can anyone help me out
 






I don't know what it looks like from the outside with the handle missing. From the inside I believe there is a latch mechanism that attaches to 2 metal link bars which extend right and left to the edges of each side of the hatch door. These connect to the latches on each side of the hatch. Your best bet is to just climb in the back and remove the interior hatch panel as GIJoe instructed in your other post: http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=136622

It's really not that hard to do and you'll probably need to remove it anyway to install your new handle. Once the interior panel is removed things will open up quite a bit and you'll be able to turn the latch mechanism and get the hatch to open.

Lee
 






hey thanks guys ill see what i can do this things really been pissing me off. ill let you know how **** goes

-J
 






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