[dsh3060]

Originally Posted by CCCD

I searched Goggle today and found a string-Craig from October 29, 2002.
CRAIG:"Oh yeah, this is another Chevy engineering master piece. It is your actuator. This is the mechanism which, when you push in on the lock, fires a small hook that pulls an arm that pops the hatch open. The flaw in GM's plan though is that the hook is made of PLASTIC and the arm is made of METAL. My dealer wanted $65 to replace the actuator! The broken plastic hook is a $0.03 part. Remove the tailgate door panel, just clips and a couple of screws. Then remove the metal skin over the mechanism; several small bolts. The piece you need is blue plastic with a rubber boot. I simply used cable ties with enough slack. Very easy."
Craig was right on.
The hardest part was loosing the tailgate door panel enough to push the arm that pops the hatch. Note, my hatch was closed so I had to climb in the back. I took a small hook and pulled the tailgate door panel in the middle enough to push the arm against the latch. Note there are four clips in the top portion, two on the sides, and two screws on each end near the top of the tailgate. I was able to pop the hatch; lower the tailgate to get access to the panel screws on the side from there it was easy. Just remember to pop the two white plastic retainers for the tailgate actuator rods and the one rod for the tailgate latch just slides out. Once the screws on the black metal panel are removed you can see the blue plastic piece. Mine was broken so I don’t really know what it looked like before. Just pull the rubber boot back a little and slide a cable tie through the slot and through the hole in the metal arm. You have now connected the moving solenoid portion to the piece that actually presses on the latch arm that actually does the work. I have pictures, if anyone wants them. It was amazingly easy fix. Not that high tech, but it works and it didn't cost me anything but a cable tie and about an hour. I cycled everything several times with no problems. The question is how long the plastic tie wrap will last.
Hope someone is able to use the information.
gm

How did you get the hatch open?