My 67 Futura wagon's tailgate won't open. Either way!? I can roll down the window and see the mechanics of the door but no matter what I try, I can't get it to fold down or swing open. The car is perfect inside and out except for the engine / trans. Engine is frozen solid and I have no idea about the tranny except that it is full of water. I absolutely love the car and would love to get it 100% but this door thing has got me stumped? Anybody have any ideas?
Not to offend but the obvious things to check first....are you sure the lock is unlocking? Is the window ALL the way down?
Can't crank down the window if the hand crank was locked and it goes all the way down too. I hear the click sound for the release when the windo hits bottom but still can't get it open?
ok Dave...when the windows down...look down inside the right hand side of the gate...(Ford didnt put too much technology in them) theres a little heavy gauge wire bent on a 90degree that the window hits when its down and that releases the gate lock...if that wire is bent or broke then thats the problem. Its not that thick...maybe 3/16th...and hits the bottom right of the glass...maybe 3" from the outside edge...and comes down in the front of the glass then bends towards the front of the car. You can usually grab something else to stick down there and activate it....at least that way you can get it open to take the cover off to work on it. let me know if this helps
Tailgate troubles I have tried everything I can think of to get this accursed thing open. I found the switch on the lower right and can push it down but still no good. Is the top latch attached to the bottom? Is there a bottom latch? My other option is to get the door to lay down but I feel little if any resistance when I operate the handle in the center of the door. Almost as if the rods are disconnected? With the handle at the right, at least it feels as if the mechanism is working. I suppose I will endeavor to persevere.
Can you remove the inside panel covering the tailgate while the tailgate is closed? That may not be possible, but if it is, it would give you better access to the interior mechanisms.
I got the door open finally but it only opens as a swing gate. I cant get it to open as a tailgate? What am I doing wrong? I got the inside panel off now but I can't figure this accursed thing out. Which latch is the one that releases the tailgate latches at the top of the door so it can drop down?
If the latch on the bottom right hand side is not fully secure it wont drop down as a tailgate. I had this problem with my '67 and found that when I had to close it I had to push it harder than usual and made sure to put more pressure at the bottom of the gate in this area. It is possible that it is not lining up and latching completely. Good luck.
My '67 Commuter didn't want to open as a tailgate and I really had to force it to swing down, but I found if I made certain to close it as a door solidly it would open. The handle for tailgate opening stuck up slightly so I recently opened it up to do a repair. A bit of a pain for someone like me with big hands. Basically, there is a bushing just like on your door handles that the pin goes into for the rods in the door. Mine had gotten very sloppy and loose after cracking in half. I also suspected the rod had bent slightly. I had a spare door handle with a good bushing that I removed and replace the bad bushing (that shattered when I first started messing with it) and made a couple of very small tweaks to the rods. Now the handle sits right and the door opens both ways, but the hinge is showing some obvious signs of wear. I'm not sure what can be done to address that, but I suspect I will learn a lot more about my "Magic Tailgate" the longer I own my car. Hope this can be of some help to you.
The tailgate Thanks guys for all the advice. I got both the door to work and the window regulator to work properly. I replaced the reg window rollers with some ebay nos replacement rollers and all is well. Again Thanks for the help!! Cock roach Dave
Glad to hear you got it working again. Sometimes these "magic" tailgates can be a mystery when they need repair.
Can you explain a little about how you finally got the gate to open. I'm struggling with the same problem on my '68. I thought I was a smart guy...until I met this tailgate. Mike
On the bottom of the right side of the tailgate is a 1/8th in. thick rod that is bent 90 degrees towards the front of the car. It passes under the tailgate window and is pushed down when the window is all the way down. That unlocks the latches for either the swing away action or the drop down action. You take off the inside skin of the tailgate, and look under the window next to the track on the right side of the tailgate you can see the rod. Mine was pretty rusted so use plenty of wd40 and work the rod up and down to get it moving. I actually took out the window to make it easier. That made it much easier to get to.
