Liftgate lifts?

[Trekkiejt]

Just bought my first Ford, first SUV, first lifted anything and it is an '89 Bronco II XLT. This is also my first vehicle with power locks and windows. Anyway, back to the question. This vehicle has some very minor issues with it. It needed brakes and wheel bearings for the worst of it. The only thing I am having trouble repairing is the liftgate. It is sagging and is out of adjustment. The passenger side of it nearly rubs the taillight while the driver side has a gap of about 1/4 inch and will not close all the way. I've adjusted the strike posts as well as the top and bottom of both hinges and cannot get the liftgate up high enough to close over the new bushings I installed nor can I get it straight. Can I shim it up to where it needs to be? Maybe with some flat washers? The body is not rusted at all by the hinges and the liftgate is not cracked that I can find. If I can shim it where on the hinges would it be best? I searched through the forums and came up with nothing along these lines.

 

[TexCaliBII]

Wow,
That's different. Did you adjust both the hinge to the truck and to the lift gate? Admittedly there's not much adjustment on the hatch side of things but it doesn't take much to affect the whole gate. I've had this same issue on a couple BIIs but adjustment of the hinges always brought it in to spec. If you didn't know already, you have to take off the interior cover across the back of the roof to get to the hinge mount bolts and they are usually stuck due to the seam sealer used at the factory. I've had to wrestle with them to fine tune the alignment of the hatch. I'd advise against shimming as that will condense the weight of the hatch to the area of the washers and would most likely fatigue the mounting sheet metal in short order. Please let us know if you need any further help. Good luck!

 

[martin]

What happened on mine was the bottom corners rusted and allowed the body to move so that it was not square anymore. check the space between the bottom of the hatch and the bumper on each side.

 

[Trekkiejt]

I loosened the two bolts on the top of both hinges as well as the two underneath the molding. The ones on the bottom weren't stuck but there is dealer around what looks like washers against the frame. Should I try to break those loose? Also my drivers side will not close fully, my guess by the scratches is the striker is catching the side of the latch. It is aligned even with the bumper however. Also when closed it does not sit even with the roof, it sits low by about 1/8 inch on both sides--hence the shimming idea.

 

[JerryC]

I'd make sure the strikers are correct. They come in different sizes and my B2 had a striker from who knows what on one of the doors with a bunch of washers used as shims and the door wasn't sitting correctly.

 

[Trekkiejt]

The strikers are the correct ones and original to the vehicle. I tried adjusted them as far down as they'll go but they were already in that position.

 

[Slammin Sam]

I've owned 3 89s, the first one was only a few years old when I bought it in 1992. All of them had a slight "hang" in the lift gate operation. None where as bad as yours, so I never invested any time trying to make them better. I know it won't be free, but maybe a good body shop could fix it in short order.