Got my truck a couple years ago, was always hard to open the tailgate - took a bit of pressure against the handle before both sides would finally pop (more in the cold it would seem). I figured that it had come out of alignment at some point, but it would still open. Well, the handle finally flew off the other day! The hardware is still intact below the plastic piece that broke, but not enough to operate the tailgate. Sigh...

So I ordered a replacement handle, should arrive in a couple days - but what to do about the alignment? I was never very adept at the cantilever stuff, and don't want to pay a dealer big bucks for a new assembly or to readjust the one I have... help!

Thanks!
Jay

 

a smart-a$$ would tell you to go to the dealer and exhange it with a tailgate on the lot... after hours of course.

 

LOL - yeah, I've gotten a couple messages about that... and THIS is the reason there's a lock on my tailgate!!

My girlfriend once asked me why I lock it when I only have a soft tonneau - I told her it's so nobody steals the actual TAILGATE!!

 

If you havn't try to adj. it , it's not that hard bolth latch posts and
bolth hinge points are adj. by 1/2 an inch.
Mine tail gate would only latch on one side, it took about ten min.
to get perfect.

 

Are you sure it needs adjusting? Mine got harder and harder to open, so finally I took the plate off and greased the mechanism. It works so much easier now.

 

Thanks for the replies!! I'll try greasing the contact points before I try adjusting it and see if that helps.

Thanks again!

Jay

 

I bought my 98 used a year ago, and in August the tailgate was getting really hard to open, taking the plate off and greasing hte contacts made it open like a dream

 

mine was a bear to open so one day i took the panel off and sprayed some lithium grease on all the moveable parts and good as new!