Check your hatch hinge pins!
 

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1344577213.jpg

This little guy was making an escape. So was his neighbor. A bit of persuasion from my finely calibrated bashometer put them back in their place.

Just be careful not to hit the glass.

It would be brutal if it went unnoticed, till it let go on the highway.

:(

Thanks, I'll check 'em.

Wow! Good catch. I'm going to go check mine.

Same thing is happening to mine, what method did you use to push them back? Mine are stuck solid, tried tapping them with a blunt object and hammer but they won't budge. Was thinking of detaching the lifting arms so that I could open the hatch up more to get better access and use a small G-clamp to wind them back in.

I opened up the hatch, sat inside, and using a pin punch, (and at times a flat blade screwdriver), drove the left one in with a ball peen hammer. For the right one I had to slightly loosen the 2 hinge bolts from the roof. Only than did it want to get hammered back in.

My biggest fear was hitting the glass and breaking it.

I was also thinking of using the clamp method, but did not have one of the correct size.

I just want to resurrect this thread, 10 years later, because I learned about this issue the hard way last week when I popped my hatch open only to have it fly up asymmetrically due to one of the hinge pins completely backing out.

I was able to drive the pin back into the hinge, but the whole ordeal put a lot of torsional stress on the hatch frame — exacerbating the risk of hatch glass separation.

So, check your hatch hinge pins! Takes five minutes, and can save all kinds of grief.

And lubricate them. They're taking rotational force and moving because they're dry.

quite true, same with hood hinge pins and door pins. they never wear out if lubricated but if not they can create a difficult problem.