first of all I am very new to forums and have no idea how to navigate this place. Is there a tutorial available?

Today the rear window “actuator” on my 2003 blazer stopped working. Prior to joining today I searched for instruction as to how to re&re the latch assembly. I found a great post from this forum that made it so easy. I tested the push button on tailgate and it is fine. I tested the actuator and it is dead. So I pulled it and buttoned it all back up. When I closed the window it didn’t latch. I was relieved because the push button doesn’t work. But then I latched all on its own.

now I can’t get the window open and thus the tailgate open. I had reinstalled the plastic trim panel on inside of tailgate which requires two screws – one at each end. These two screws keep me from being able to remove trim panel so I can access the latch manually.

Does anyone have a fix for me to open window open? Or am I screwed? Thank you in advance.

 

*Moving to 2nd Gen Tech*

There is a post around here somewhere on how to manually trip the latch through the carpetting. On some models there is a hole behind the carpet for this purpose already, but most have to cut the carpet a bit then drill a hole in the proper spot to be able to get back there and trigger the actuator.

Let me see if I can find that post for you and I'll edit it into this post when I do.

And just to clarify some of the terminology that you use, I am assuming that you have the window-up / tailgate-down arrangement at the back of your truck and not the liftgate arrangement. Different methodologies apply depending on the layout of the rear cargo opening.

*Edit* - Adding in links to pertinent threads:
rear hatch won't open - rmkenny reply <-- Good picture of the access hole location
rear hatch won't open - C Craft reply <-- Very detailed descriptions & images