Made a bit of a cock up and have removed the fusebox and enough other bits that it would be a pain to put things back now just to open the tailgate.
Is there a way of pulling the solenoid from within the car to open it? I figure remove the carpeted panel and hopefully it'll be there in front of me, but I can't remember if you can actually get to it now, or if the panel will actually be removable from the inside. Any ideas?
Once you've got the carpeted panel off, just grab the 2 brass coloured actuating rods and pull them towards each other. Harder to explain than to do- only 3 arms there, 2 connected to a rotating link (your target ones) and 1 to solenoid.
Or when you are looking at it, move the single rod connecting the solenoid towards the right and it will pop the top half of the tailgate. Do it a second time, and it will pop the bottom half.
I had to do it on one of mine, over the weekend when I was replacing the upper tailgate and was trying to align in from inside!
The carpet piece can be a pain to take off though.
Either that or remove fuse F15 on the BECM and then feed 12V into it output of the fuse, and then ground the 12V source to the chassis (BECM ground point) and then with the drivers door unlocked you should be able to open the tailgate - as the solenoid is normally permanently powered via F15 - and grounds through the CDL of the drivers door - so putting 12V on the output of F15 will feed the things in that circuit - which happens to include the tailgate :)
Thanks guys - will give it a go this afternoon.
Stripping the old shed is going to take longer than I'd thought, there's a lot of bits to have! Or maybe I'm hoarding things...
What year's the shed? I'm preparing a list of bits I need :-)
It's a 1996 GEMS, but with clear lights, the later 5 bar grey leather (though I believe without airbags, and the heater elements don't work). Radiator is basically brand new, probably done 1500 miles.
Let me know what you need and I'll see what I can help with :)
Did a huge list and then it vanished without publishing :-( Will re-type it in a bit...
I have installed a pull cord to operate the tailgate solenoid just in case I have a flat battery and can't open the tailgate. I can reach the cord from inside the car if I put the back seat down. It comes out via a brass eyelet through the carpet. Normally the knot in the end of the cord is pushed back in the hole so lies flush.