The latch handle has become disconnected, I pull on it but nothing happens. It became disconnected when I had the rear panel off to repair the glass release mechanism. How can I release the tailgate?

It almost seems as though I have to reach down behind the trim panel and through the metal panel and pull on the rod. But my hand is torn up and the rod doesn't budge.

Please help, this is my first post. The vehicle is a 1998 Jimmy with drop gate and lifting glass.

 

I think you're right. If the rod has become disconnected, you're going to need to get behind the plastic panel to manually operate the latch, or to reconnect the rod to the mechanism. You might be able to hook onto it with a pick tool or some vice-grips?

 

Thanks for your reply El Beautor. After sleeping on it I am going to take a very destructive approach. I plan to cut open the rear trim panel with an angle grinder so that I can see what is happening.

It almost feels like the vertical connecting rod is connected to the horizontal rods. When I pull on the handle, it seems like the horizontal connecting rods move about 1/4", but not enough to release the latch. Also, it seems there is quite a bit of slop or play until the rods start to move.

Once the back is open I'm going to pull on the horizontal rods with vice grips and that ought to release it.

 

The carpet that is attached to the tail or drop gate will peel-off with some effort. Removing this will expose the linkage that hopefully you can then move and open the gate.

 

Thanks Lanny, too late. After destroying my trim panel, the tailgate opened easily by pulling on the linkage with vice grips.

As it turns out, the latch mechanism was getting stuck or caught on the glass mechanism. This happened when I had the back open to repair the glass mechanism. I sprayed everything down with lube, and maybe this loosened up the linkage enough to move something out of place. Or maybe something got bent while I was digging around.

Either way, I adjusted the linkage by bending a rod and now it works.