Part 1 of story is here
Part 2 is here

long story short - tail gate wouldn't open. finally got it open. now its always unlocked.


It was nice enough to go out and play today. Manged to get the plastic off the inside of the tail gate with the gate closed (started from the top and worked my way down did get some crackage near the access hole but meh).


Found the access hole to be a little larger and there was an additional hole to see the lock mechanism inside the door. Checked around to see that everything was connected and found a little spring floating free.



Poked around a little more and found one part that freely moved - looks like the spring maybe connected to here?

When the white thing is what I'm calling the 'down position' the door wont open - the lock is engaged.



When the white thing is in the 'up position' the door will open - lock disengaged.



Now for the kicker - If I lock the kj with the white thing in the up position I can open the tail gate and glass. I can shut the tail gate but need to unlock the kj for the rear glass to catch. If I lock the kj with the white thing in the down position the gate locks as it should.


Do I need to replace the locking mechanism? I'm sure getting the spring back on there would be beneficial but with the area to play in I don't see how I'd go about that...

Any comments/ideas would be appreciated