Tailgate will not open

[P. A. Schilke]

Hi Folks,

Weird thing today when trying to load the pickup box. The tailgate latches would not open completely, only to the secondary latch position I finally got the bakflip open and could access the backside of the tailgate. Then with a very agressive pull on the top of the tailgate, I got it opened.... Inspected the latches and very thing looked normal. I cycled the power locks as well as used the standard side cut key. Tried to close the tail gate and it would not latch, acting like the latchs were tripped. So using a screw driver, I cycled the latches to fully latched, used the tailgate handle to disengage the latches and they popped back open...did this a few times. Tailgate closed normally and now opens with one hand thanks to the really cool tailgate damper... I have no idea of what happened or why... I remain very puzzled on why this happened....

Any thoughts or experiences?

best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

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[THLONE]

Hi Phil
My guess when someone reengineers something is to look at the new thing. My guess is the obvious, damper caused it. Since you have the strength to pull it open you dont need it anyway. LOL

 

[UncleBob]

Blame it on the damper. LOL
But seriously for a moment... Did you inspect the restraint cable on the left side that typically get pinched by the damper? I notice mine is showing the troublesome wear that has been reported. I wonder if yours happened to just get jammed enough to cause your symptom?

 

[Fawnbuster]

Maybe some grit in the latch mechanism?

 

[Trigganometry]

Hi Folks,

Weird thing today when trying to load the pickup box. The tailgate latches would not open completely, only to the secondary latch position I finally got the bakflip open and could access the backside of the tailgate. Then with a very agressive pull on the top of the tailgate, I got it opened.... Inspected the latches and very thing looked normal. I cycled the power locks as well as used the standard side cut key. Tried to close the tail gate and it would not latch, acting like the latchs were tripped. So using a screw driver, I cycled the latches to fully latched, used the tailgate handle to disengage the latches and they popped back open...did this a few times. Tailgate closed normally and now opens with one hand thanks to the really cool tailgate damper... I have no idea of what happened or why... I remain very puzzled on why this happened....

Any thoughts or experiences?

best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

Phil,
Had something similar a month or so ago. I noticed fine sand in my sliding latches. Blew them out with compressed air and then put a few drops of graphene oil on both. Actuated a few times and been good ever since. Wonder if the seam gaps is allowing turbulence in this area and carrying in the fine particulates?

 

[AzScorpion]

You don't use your Ranger a lot and with all the dust and dirt we have out here I'm guessing that's causing it. Like Rick suggested lube it up really good and try and open & close it more often. I'm in & out of mine all the time which probably helps with the dust settling in there.

It's definitely not the damper as you have the custom Ford Racing one. ?

 

[Megawatt]

 

[Bludrok]

There is a retired Ford Ranger engineer on these forums. I would ask him.

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Phil,
Had something similar a month or so ago. I noticed fine sand in my sliding latches. Blew them out with compressed air and then put a few drops of graphene oil on both. Actuated a few times and been good ever since. Wonder if the seam gaps is allowing turbulence in this area and carrying in the fine particulates?

Hi Rick,

I took your advice and blew out the latches and used some garage door opener drive lube. We will see how this works.

Thanks for the suggestion...

best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

 

[P. A. Schilke]

to be honest,
i have to wonder if his account was hacked????

Nope, not hacked....not a body Engineer...latches belong to them... Hard to know all the 5000 pieces that go into building a truck...

 

[Texasota]

quick verification then to see if this is the real Phil.....

whats your turtles name???

The real Phil has a tortoise.

 

[Racket]

...so - ya think ya threw a rod?

 

[Msfitoy]

Nope, not hacked....not a body Engineer...latches belong to them... Hard to know all the 5000 pieces that go into building a truck...

Good thing it's not bug related...we, at Mack Trucks actually have someone dedicated as the "bug screen" expert for the gril...only God know what he does the rest of a product development cycle...?

 

[P. A. Schilke]

The real Phil has a tortoise.

Tortoise is Tito...Yep...mine...

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Hi Rick,

I took your advice and blew out the latches and used some garage door opener drive lube. We will see how this works.

Thanks for the suggestion...

best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

Hi Rick,

Further diagnostics. it appear that the right latch gets out of sync with the other latch and does not release. So with a bit of careful study with a mirror from the inside, I determined to lower the latch bail on the sidewall post and it worked many times. I tired it so many times, the damper overheated like a non offroad shock on the Baja 1000... Worked fine.... So for now I feel more confident than just lubing the latch assembly.

Best,
Phil

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