John,

I have had this happen to me on my '87 van hatch. what I found out was that sometimes the little metal rod inside the hatch that I believe is called the "Activator rod" comes out of the little nylon piece and you just have to put the rod back in by pushing it in the hole on the nylon piece.

It is a bear to take off the hatch cover from inside when you can't get the hatch door to unlock the little round clips are not not fun to remove and some of mine even got torn up and I had to go and buy some new ones at the local flaps.

Hope this information helps.

Chris

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
To: vanagon <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Sun, Jul 18, 2010 1:15 pm
Subject: Electric Locks - Rear hatch will not open

  I have a Carat with electric locks. No battery power for the time

being while work is being done on the van. BUT, I need to open the rear

hatch and the lock will not release using the key. Up until yesterday,

it always released. Today it will not.  Unlike my manual locks in the my

GL's, this lock requires the key be in the lock to press the button to

unlock the hatch. The key turns, the button goes in when pressed, but

the latch doesn't release.

Any suggestions??

Thanks,

John

--

John Rodgers

Clayartist and Moldmaker

88'GL VW Bus Driver

Chelsea, AL

Http://www.moldhaus.com