Trunk Striker can I Bypass Motor?

[Oil-e-coyote]

The worm motor for my trunk lift down is fried. I mean it was white hot when I disconnected it! Now I have the desire to just have a striker without the motor for a while until I come across a used motor. The motors are in the range of $70 unless anyone has a better price. I was told that they are standardized for Lincoln Town Car/Continental/Mark. I own a 1990 Mark VII.
Can I directswap the pull down motor with other models?
My latch striker is jammed in the up position. For the life of me I cannot get it to screw down. I tried turning the motor so the gear turns it but I can only get it to catch the threads going the other way. Anyone know of a striker latch that will work instead?

 

[Elessee]

Mine got messed up twice. Once when the switch burned and once when the trunk closed on a piece of luggage that was sticking up. There's a worm gear in there and it got stripped.

There's no easy way to describe the unit's disassembly and/or repair but I'll try and provide some hints. All that's needed is a screwdriver and maybe some small sockets.
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First you've got to take the whole unit off .. unscrew a couple bolts and disconnect the wire connection.. and put it on a workbench and fiddle with it.

In my case the junkyard had a few Lincolns .. some were Marks.. and I was able to find a replacement switch. That cost a dollar or so. And, when the plastic worm gear needed replacing, same thing.. I never bought a motor but it's probably gonna cost more than a dollar.... maybe $5.

From memory.. (i could go look but I'm lazy) The motor is attached to the plastic assembly with 3 or four screws and removal is no problem. However, it's arbor (the shaft) is a steel worm that mates with the worm gear. So, you can't just pull the motor out. The worm needs to be removed first (since it and the motor shaft are mated while assembled). It may be that the motor / shaft can be unwound from the unit.. im not sure but i don't think so.

There's grease in there.. it's sorta messy. But if you've got the will power and patience, disassembling and reassembly is no big deal. There are only about 5 parts to the whole unit, but guaranteed you'll get a little frustrated the first time... it's a compact and tricky assembly. The switch has a tab sticking out which seems to get in the way when trying to remove / install things..

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BTW, have you hooked the motor directly up to 12volts (your battery is a good source) to see if it's actually toast?
Mine got really hot when the trunk wouldn't close all the way.. too hot to touch.. i figured the motor was gone but it wasn't. After it jammed it stripped the gear and was spinning free by the time i got back there..


And I did drive it for a week or so with no pull-down function. I only remembering having to "slam" the lid like on a normal vehicle.....

I managed to get the latch-catch to retract to the LOW-trunk closed-position... (I forget if i turned that worm gear manually, which is possible once the unit is on a bench.. OR if i was able to hot-wire the motor and run the latch down without removing anything, which is also possible if the motor is functional.. ) You should be able to figure it out.

Once that latch is down the trunk lid-catch locks to it. And a key opens it. I don't recall if the glove box switch worked but i'm pretty sure it did..

Be prepared.. At first the unit will seem like a curious puzzle .. but it's not hard to solve.
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Edit.. (There may be something useful to someone so I'll leave the above as is)

Feeling a little guilty for not providing better info, i overcame my innate laziness and went out and took the cover off and stared at it for a few minutes.. No new insights about that lower part. I forget it's inner workings. It needs to be on a bench and disassembled.

Firstly, the glove box switch / mechanism is in the upper trunk lid, so it'll work as normal.

Secondly, there's a little white plastic latch-switch up there on that lid mechanism. If you flip the steel lid-catch to the closed / locked position and then move that white plastic thing upwards, the motor turns, and pulls / retracts the bottom latch down where we want it.

So, open the trunk. Flip the steel catch to the closed position and then move the plastic thing.. That will retract the lower catch to it's down / closed position. It works with the ignition off as usual.. If i remember right this method can make the lower catch retract too far. It should retract just enough and no more. Otherwise the trunk will need to be slammed down hard. Be wary of that.

If your motor is toast this won't be much help, of course..

And don't try to close the trunk with the upper catch in the locked position. Unlock it with a key or something before closing the trunk.

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Another edit.. Now I remember searching among the Lincolns in the boneyard for a latch-catch to replace the motorized version and I found n-o-t-h-i-n-g.. and i looked really hard.

 

[Oil-e-coyote]

Elessee, it is rockin reply to my post, no doubt. I have had that motor on the bench (a small table in front of the TV in my apartment). I tried manually turning when I felt it was catching but it turns out it was the wrong direction and it started to crack the plastic housing. Note of caution to all.
I will try again to crack this nut and at least post which way to turn the worm so you are trying to get the latch to go down and not screw into itself. I don’t have it in front of me because I live in a city where an open trunk is the devil’s plaything. At any rate, that was the only way that a turn was catching. I tried the disassembly, but the first step is star headed screws of which I do not have the tools.

I’m in Miami and if anyone knows of Mark VII or any Lincolns in salvage I would love to here about it. I can’t find a single one. People drive like a disaster here and there are plenty of junkers, but just haven’t seen a single Lincoln.

Its interesting that you also had a white hot motor and that it still worked after it cooled. First thing I did was take out the motor shaft and it wasn’t mated as you describe so I think I have some damage. I probably did more damage cranking it the wrong way. I’m not going to try to hotwire it at this point although your post is dynamite in a general help sense. I have really benefitted in the past from posts like this and cheers to you. I will certainly let you know the results of having the motor on the bench, but I need to do this in the morning for security.

 

[Elessee]

Elessee, it is rockin reply to my post, no doubt. I have had that motor on the bench (a small table in front of the TV in my apartment). I tried manually turning when I felt it was catching but it turns out it was the wrong direction and it started to crack the plastic housing. Note of caution to all.
I will try again to crack this nut and at least post which way to turn the worm so you are trying to get the latch to go down and not screw into itself. I don’t have it in front of me because I live in a city where an open trunk is the devil’s plaything. At any rate, that was the only way that a turn was catching. I tried the disassembly, but the first step is star headed screws of which I do not have the tools.

I’m in Miami and if anyone knows of Mark VII or any Lincolns in salvage I would love to here about it. I can’t find a single one. People drive like a disaster here and there are plenty of junkers, but just haven’t seen a single Lincoln.

Its interesting that you also had a white hot motor and that it still worked after it cooled. First thing I did was take out the motor shaft and it wasn’t mated as you describe so I think I have some damage. I probably did more damage cranking it the wrong way. I’m not going to try to hotwire it at this point although your post is dynamite in a general help sense. I have really benefitted in the past from posts like this and cheers to you. I will certainly let you know the results of having the motor on the bench, but I need to do this in the morning for security.

My car doesn't use those star things.. ('88Mk7) These are regular hex-headed screws holding it to the trunk wall.
I've picked up the "star" drivers along the way... from tiny to small and large. They're not expensive at the cheapo-tool stores (google harbor freight tools) and they come in handy for some more mundane things. You'd need one to remove seat belts, for instance.

If the motor pulled out, the teeth on the plastic gear may be destroyed.

As far as getting parts from auto wreckers, google "your state" and auto wreckers. These guys mostly cooperate among themselves.. some join associations.. and they find and ship parts back and forth. Then the customer goes to a local one and picks them up.
"FADRA - Florida Auto Dismantlers & Recyclers Association" comes up first on my browser search..
I'd suggest you try and order the entire assembly. IMHO them asking for $50 (with some kinda return policy or warranty) is about right.. although I'm such a cheapskate i'd still try to get a better deal..
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As for testing the motor, I was a bit nervous about trying it.. but then I was sure was happy when the motor spun.

My harness connector has one Red and two Black wires. Red-black-black
Look at where the motor plugs into that connector. Mark the red connector tab on the motor with a scratch or a pen/crayon.

Put 12V Positive on the red and 12V Negative on one of the black. Then put Negative on the other black (to spin it the other way).
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And yeah.. it's a plastic housing and it's brittle.. It's degraded by age and grease. So if anyone is getting into this, brute force only makes things worse.. finesse is the preferred method.

Good luck with it.. keep us updated.

 

[artbaileyjr]

Ordinarily, the most common problems are that the lower switch (on the pull-down mechanism) goes south, or the gear strips.

The easiest way to get the pull-down where you want it, (assuming that the switch is the culprit) is to remove the switch (two Phillips screws) and work the switch out of there. This is easier if the pull-down is stranded in the "up" position.

Once the switch is out, you will see two copper contacts on the motor where the switch was connected. Apply voltage to those copper contacts momentarily and observe weather the pull down is traveling up or down. If it's up, don't run it any further as thats how you damage the case or gear. If its running up, simply reverse the polarity of the wires and run it down until the trunk shuts as a normal "non-pull down" trunk. If you get it a bit too hard to shut, simply reverse polarity and raise it a tad.

If the switch is toast, applying power to the harness plug connection may be fruitless.

If the motor is toast, simply remove the metal field casing from the motor so just the armature is exposed. Turn the armature by hand, winding the pull down, downward. If you have resistance while turning the armature or it starts to thread out of the body, apply pressure inward on the armature while applying pressure downward on the pull down latch.

If the pull down motor is toast, you can scavenge parts from other Lincoln models, but beware: They look similar but the hoop is different. It wont work. You must use the original style pull down body and metal hoop.

Obviously, getting a complete replacement is the best option either at the yards or on e-bay, but as I mentioned above, most of the time, it's the switch on the pull down mechanism.

Art