Help me - Power rear hatch lock works backwards

[r39o]

My rear factory power hatch lock has decided to work backwards.

I have searched to no good conclusion other than it is broken or lubricate it.

Here is what happens.

If I lock the car, the rear lock is in the unlock mode.

If I un lock the van, the rear locks.

Also, when locked, and I use the key to lock the trunk (slot vertical) it is unlocked.

It was working before, but I only noticed this on a recent little camping trip trying to take stuff out at the camp ground.

What to do?
_________________
"Use the SEARCH, Luke" But first visit the Vanagon FAQ!

1990 Multivan EJ 22, Rancho trans 0.82 4th, Small Car front AC, CLKs w/ 215/65-16, homemade big brakes 303mm, Konis, Recaros, etc....

Click to see my ads for Cup holders, Subaru clutch fix and CLK wheels (no wheels currently)

[outwesty]

My 89 westy does the exact same thing. I still have not looked into it.

[insyncro]

Mine was doing this and Mario, Syncrodoka replied saying lube it.
Thats what I did and all is good.


Does your van have the emergency release on the rear hatch?
Mine does, so I made sure the other doors were in the unlocked position and popped the hatch, locked, from the inside and it reversed the mechanism.

I didnt want to pull the rear hatch panel as it and the fasteners are perfect, so I used a long extension on a can of Wurth HKS...super silicone and hosed the entire lock area from one of the lower door vents.

Hope this helps.

[eeebee]

I also had this happen when I was "fixing" it. I didn't have the lock assembly in straight so the slider made contact at the wrong part of its slide.
_________________
Eric

1987 Vanagon Wolfsburg Special Edition
GoWesty 2.3

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

[Jeff's Old Volks Home]

The slider in the latch is sticking on the detent ball. I often have to 'sand' the ramp on the slider smoother so it will travel with the actuator.
Take the hatch liner off and you'll see exactly what I mean.
Jeff

[syncrodoka]

Pull the panel and lube the part that slides back and forth with the actuator.
Cycle the system a few times to get the lube everywhere.
Unplug the wire to the actuator and lock or unlock the rest of the van and then plug the actuator back in.
You should be back in phase.

The mechanism gets dry and sticky then it has a hard time cycling and it gets left behind on one cycle and it becomes out of phase.
If you are lucky enough to have a '91 with the emergency latch like insyncro you can follow his lead.

[davideric9]

I just fixed my yesterday. DON'T pull the panel (as the rear hatch panel is very fragile). Everything you need comes out through the bottom (you said you can open the hatch). Remove the three allen head screws on the bottom of the lock, then reach in and remove the linkage rod that connects the lock to the actuator, them remove the lock. Lubricate as everyone else as said.
_________________
1987 Syncro Westfalia, stock (bought 1994)
1986 Syncro Westfalia SVX, 3 knob (bought 2008)
1987 Westfalia (bought 2010)
1988 Wolfsburg GL (bought 2012)

[syncrodoka]

I have heard of people doing as you suggested. Someone else showed a factory hole where the little red straw extension fit in and could be sprayed onto the dry part.
How does one get the actuator back into phase without unplugging the wiring? Is it as simple as pushing it into the opposite direction of where it is sitting and "manually overriding" it's position and resetting it to be in phase? I will likely never have to do it again on my van but I am interested in how it is done.

BTW, I have pulled out the rear panels before without damaging either the panel or clips with my handy snap-on panel tool, it can be done.

[davideric9]

I like pulling the lock out to have it in my hand so I can clean it up and wipe away the dry cruddy stuff before I lube it. On mine, the lock was also sticky so the spring was not returning it to an unlocked state. Was easy to see this with the lock out.

As for getting the actuator back in sync, here I am just guessing, but I did not have any issue with this as the actuator was never out of sync and cannot get out of sync if it is still working. If you are not removing anything then you should be good. The whole sync thing is caused by the lock mechanism not moving to the proper position because of lack of lubricant, its getting stuck in the wrong position. The inner workings of the actuator should be fine. If you are in doubt, you could remove the linkage from the lock and cycle the front door locks a few times, be great if you had another person do this so you can watch the rod move in and out and then reconnect the lock to the rod in the appropriate position (locked or unlocked) and you should be good to go.

boy, 1 picture should have been used here.
_________________
1987 Syncro Westfalia, stock (bought 1994)
1986 Syncro Westfalia SVX, 3 knob (bought 2008)
1987 Westfalia (bought 2010)
1988 Wolfsburg GL (bought 2012)

[r39o]

Where to lube????

Can some one edit and point to where, please.....

_________________
"Use the SEARCH, Luke" But first visit the Vanagon FAQ!

1990 Multivan EJ 22, Rancho trans 0.82 4th, Small Car front AC, CLKs w/ 215/65-16, homemade big brakes 303mm, Konis, Recaros, etc....

Click to see my ads for Cup holders, Subaru clutch fix and CLK wheels (no wheels currently)

[insyncro]

Picture number 4 from the top shows the slide (my name for it)...that is what I believe is grabbing and not allowing free movement, or the actuator to slide the mechanism to lock and unlock, when it grabs, it gets out of sync.
This is an unproven theory.
Hose the entire area with your lube of choice.

[insyncro]

To resync I would have the rest of the doors unlocked, pull the battery cable and use the rear hatch lock with a key to make sure it will lock and unlock freely.
Leave it unlocked, reattach the battery cable and hope for the best.

[syncrodoka]

Picture 2 and 4 show the rod that needs to be lubed.
The close up in picture 4 shows things a little clearer. The rod on the bottom is just a connector rod to the actuator. The upper rod that the u-shaped piece is the attached to is your monkey. The u-piece moves into out of a window that will or will not come in contact with the piece that is pushed in to open the door.

[insyncro]

Thanks Mario.
Yes the upper rod.

[r39o]

[syncrodoka]

I would be interested in knowing if pushing the actuator into the opposite position manually by shoving the u shaped piece to the left would get it back into sync like davideric9 eluded to.

[insyncro]

Lube the blue line

[davideric9]

At this point there is nothing holding the key portion of the lock into the van other than the actuator rod (on the bottom of the picture showing through the white plastic) and friction. Pop that rod out of the white plastic retainer and then you can push the lock into the hatch and wiggle it out of the hatch. Then you can clean it up and easily see what needs to be lubed. the rod pushes and pulls the U shaped metal, so if this is having trouble sliding, the door won't work right. Take it out, you are already there......

dh
_________________
1987 Syncro Westfalia, stock (bought 1994)
1986 Syncro Westfalia SVX, 3 knob (bought 2008)
1987 Westfalia (bought 2010)
1988 Wolfsburg GL (bought 2012)

[Benjamin Gell]

[presslab]

While I agree it's probably something mechanical in the linkage, now's a good time to take the actual actuator out and refurbish it. All the ones I've taken apart have some kind of corrosion going on inside, and it's not hard to clean it up and put some new silicone grease on the wiper contacts.
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1986 Vanagon Westfalia EJ25
1988 Subaru GL-10 EJ20G --- 2000 Honda XR650L
2010 Titus El Guapo --- 2011 On-One 456 Ti