Has anyone ever repaired or attempted to repair the tail gate hinge and latch assembly on a 80's Country Squire? Mine is loose and the tailgate sticks and binds when opening as a door and it takes lots of kind words to get it to lower as a Tailgate. I've attempted a repair with a universal hinge repair kit, apparently the parts manufacturers forgot these cars existed and no parts are available. I made it better but it's still real sloppy and with me I need it like new if that's possible or not. LOL. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. I've done lots of work to this old wagon. Mechanically it's a new car and after the electrical and water leak repairs ( This is one of the sources of the water leaks) I can get on with the cosmetic stuff. If anyone wants to see I was thinking about posting a thread on my engine bay and dash rewire job with a Ford Racing wiring harness, that will be in a week or two. My 10yr anniversary is this week and I might not be able to play with the wagon till next week. Thanks in advanced
Wow. I didn't see this thread. All I can say is that the hinge assemblies are a complicated design, an no one makes an aftermarket unit. I had to comb through junkyards and salvage good assemblies (which I unfortunately sold early last year), and so many have met their demise, they're much harder to find used. You can Google "obsolete Ford parts" to see if there's an NOS assembly available. The way I got my T/G open when the hinge was worn out, I just lifted the T/G by the hinge end of the outside release handle. If you want, I can rummage through my boxes of parts and see if I might have anything left for tailgates, but I'm reasonably sure I sold it all when I made the sale last year, even the incomplete latch assembly I had.
