BrEnDaNb

my rear hatch wont open and i've tried all suggestions from emergency manual release to checking the fuses. still sounds like the switch is working it just wont release. frustrated as hell with this because it had worked perfectly before

blazes9395

The latch mechinism in the rear gate is made out of plactic. It ofetn wears/breaks and although you can hear the motor working insdie the tailgate, it wont pop it. you need to replace the unit as a whole insdie the rear tailgate.

BrEnDaNb

any ideas as how to open the hatch without dismantling and maybe ruining the panel?

cal058

Does your master switch in the drivers door lock and unlock the other doors?
If not, there is a 3 amp fuse in fuse box under the hood that may be blown.

BrEnDaNb

fuse is fine and i have tried almost all i can think of.

travis2822

I have a 99 Blazer and had the same problem. After reading the many posts I couldn't figure it out and one day I went out and decided to work on it until I fixed it.

You have to pull the carpet away in the area where you see the latch. There will be a little square cut out of the metal and you be able to see the latch mechanism. You need to get a flat head screw driver and play around in there until you understand how it works and get it to pop. I can't remember exactly how it was but I believe you take the flat head and run it along a little piece that will rotate down. You may need to rotate it down a little bit and get another screwdriver to insert to get more leverage.
Once it is popped you need to take off the tailgate trim and you will see the mechanism. The piece is plastic you can either buy a new one or do like I did and repair it with a paper clip. Mine has been working fine for 2 years.

Good Luck I'll take a look at mine and see if I can give you better details.

BrEnDaNb

thanx for your help. how long did it take to figure this out because i have almost given up from pure frustration of trying to use the manual release to open this damn latch for about a year now! took some time, but finally figured it out. rigged it with copper wire to release latch mechanism.

travis2822

To be embarrassly honest it took me over a year of messing with it infequently. I finally got tired of loading my groceries from the back seat. Once I finally got into it and decided to stay until I fixed it, it took about 2 hours. You just have to go in there with a couple of screwdrives and see how it works. Once you understand how it works it should be easy.