Rear Hatch Handle Replacement, Now How do I lock the Hatch?

[wildbill23c]

As far as I can tell there was never a lock mechanism in the rear hatch in my 88 Bronco 2....there was a key slot in the original handle but it didn't go to anything, and there's nothing internal on that hatch that locks....anything I can get to secure that hatch? Now that its really easy to open, I would like to fix it so it can't be opened without a key....and without a cobbled together ugly mess. The Bronco 2 has power locks, why the heck doesn't the rear hatch have a power lock mechanism? Doesn't appear that there ever was one either.

 

[franklin2]

I will be watching this also. My hatch locks, all the time. You can't open it unless the key is inserted in the middle. I left the key in the handle so I could open it at will, but the key started getting rusty so I changed this idea and just keep it up front and have to get it anytime I want in the rear.

 

[wildbill23c]

I will be watching this also. My hatch locks, all the time. You can't open it unless the key is inserted in the middle. I left the key in the handle so I could open it at will, but the key started getting rusty so I changed this idea and just keep it up front and have to get it anytime I want in the rear.

The original handle never had a key or at least neither of the keys I have would do anything, or was replaced, who knows, but it didn't require a key to get the hatch open, just the mechanism was so worn out it took quite a bit of force to get the latches to release, then it finally just failed completely so for several weeks I couldn't open the hatch at all unless I crawled in the back over the back seat and pulled the latch bars manually...pretty big pain. Now I just want to figure out what to do about a lock mechanism of some sort, don't even care if it has to be unlocked from inside first just don't want a cobbled up mess is what I want to avoid. I don't keep anything of value in the vehicle but I still don't like leaving it unlocked in certain areas of course.