Thread: Manual tailgate release D3

ok great ....glad i checked as i was going to go for the nut with a spanner to release the cable ....i guess I pop off the spring with a flat screw driver ......and make sure i keep my eye on it as it pops off

in terms of the procedure I guess the top and 2 side plastic trims come off before i undo the two cables ....or is the cable removal a necessary part of getting off the two side black plastic trims ...( they dont seem to have any nuts or screws to undo )

tomorrow will put the patient under anaesthesa and perform the op .......

Can someone describe to me what happens?

Is upper or lower that you can't open?

I ask because I am set up for remote touring and I have a cargo barrier so I can survive if I can open the upper tailgate but not the lower, but I would be in a lot of trouble if I couldn't open the back at all. I would probably have to break a window.

Andrew, it's the lower one that fails.

I think ....but not sure as i have not opened up my patient yet .....that the top part of the tail gate locks into the lower part ,,.....and the failure issue is with the lower part .........hence the need for a mod that allows for manual release of the lower part ...that in turn releases the upper part .....someone who has better understanding and done the mod will be better able to explain ........but it looks like if you have drawers and /or cargo barrier and the systems fails ........you have no access .....so thats what im working on and trying to understand how to do the MOD

Originally Posted by AnD3rew

Can someone describe to me what happens?

Is upper or lower that you can't open?

I ask because I am set up for remote touring and I have a cargo barrier so I can survive if I can open the upper tailgate but not the lower, but I would be in a lot of trouble if I couldn't open the back at all. I would probably have to break a window.

The miserable bit is that breaking the rear upper glass does not cause anything to open. Yes, it will allow you some access to the lower gate carpet to break that out - (what does it matter then), so eventually you can release what is left of the upper gate and then electrically release the lower half, (one hopes).

All the moving parts and electrical is in the lower half.

To answer a previous question, one easy way to get the carpet off assuming the lower end gate is down is to first remove the upper black plastic cap, then the wind up cables and then slide off the black plastic end caps. The carpet is glued to a piece of flexible backing and that is clipped to the metal of the lower end gate. The clips are supposed to pull free and release; for the most part, they do.

The more I think of it, some sort of manual cable release should be considered a necessary part of a cabinet install; as to a cargo barrier, I guess it should be part removable from the front side - kind of important if Fido is back there.

The problem seemed to occur on the D3,has anyone had this issue with the D4 or has it been modified in some way?

Performed sucessful anastomosis of a bifurcation to the main cable giving access to the posterior orifice of my LR to day .....the patient is well and the surgeon is chuffed

I attach pics of the mechanism of 2011 D4 so those familiar with this mod will be able to tell if its different from D3 ....I did note that the housing for the accentuator was silver not gold .....and it has that L shaped peice of metal folks talk about that goes into a bit of plastic ......I guess that bit of plastic is what breaks

Only problem I had was with the end black trims .....they would not come off ....and after applying force ....( not always the best approach ) the plastic plugs that go into the metal of the tail gate sheared off .....I applied super glue to them on the way back and hope it holds . I only removed one side and used the famous golf club retractor to keep the carpet skin back while I operated

I used nylon coated 7 strand 100 lb fishing wire .....(the nice thing about this stuff is you can weld it to itself with a gas lighter and make neat strong loops ) and two electrical joiners trimmed down as per pic ......then pushed the whole thing back up under the trim with a little peice of webbing protruding .......IN EVENT OF EMERGENCY PULL TAB .....tested it and it works a treat ....thanks for all the help .....one less thing to go wrong in middle of simpson desert.........only 5 pics allowed so a few more to follow

the rest of the pics ....im sure they will be helpful to someone......Oh ...and so glad for the tip to clamp the cable supports ....they really want to shoot into the cavity once you release them .....could be nasty to get them back out .......