Liftgate

September 27/2019


Tonight when I got home from work, I opened the liftgate via the dash switch, and heard a loud clunk and some banging. I looked back and saw the top of the lift mechanism
floating around. I had read of a few others having this problem, so I had a good idea of what happened. I removed the liftgate fuse to prevent any accidental attempt to open it.




An image I found of how somebody else repaired their problem; welded the ballmount back in place.




Diagram of the lift mechanism.





How to open the liftgate manually.
September 29/2019




Remove the access cover.



    
Push down on the lever and push open the liftgate. Have something to wedge under the liftgate or else it will shut and lock on you.



    
Ballmount ripped out of its place.



    
Cracked the interior panel.



    
Tore the ballmount right out.




         
The ballmount.



October 20/2019


I haven't opened the liftgate for a few weeks now. The few times that I did, I climbed in the back and pushed the lever. Then it dawned on me that you could still use the remote to unlock the latch. Duh.
After some trial and error, here is how to do it.....


OPEN LIFTGATE: CLOSE LIFTGATE:
stand at the tailgate stand at the tailgate
open with the remote *
 manually push the slider to its fully down position
when the latch opens, manually lift the tailgate manually lower the liftgate to the closed position; gently release the tailgate and let the latch lock itself
* you can use the dash button, but then you have to rush to raise the liftgate before the slider gets to high



November 8/2019



    
Finally got a couple of really good images of how things should be. Thanks to helbigtw on Mazdas247.



November 10/2019



    
Put together an assortment of washers and a nut that may be used in the repair.



November 14/2019




Cleaned up and ready to weld up.



    
Nut and washer welded together. This will replace the originl one.




    
Welded to the liftgate. The metal is very thin, so tricker to weld. It isn't pretty, but will do the job.

If you have any comments, suggestions, or see any errors, please let me know..... cbradley@telus.net

Last updated on November 14/2019

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