Yesterday my tailgate would not open on my 1976 f150. I got it open, but noticed that the rod connected to the right side was not in the thing it's supposed to be in on the latch.

On my 90s f150 there was an access panel behind the latch. It does not look like there is one on this tailgate.

How do I get it apart to put the rod back into the latch? The Chilton manual I have does not say how to do this. And I couldn't find anything searching here, which seemed odd. Maybe I'm missing something easy. I've also got a fuel problem, so I'm more worried about that, but I figured while I'm working on the truck today (instead of using it as was the plan) might as well fix this too.

Thanks!

 

Many years ago I had the same problem, but I was able to reach the end of the rod and slip it back into the whole. I can't remember for sure , but I thought there was a BIG cover plate that exposed almost the entire inside of the tailgate. I never bothered to fix it because we were having a rash of tailgate thefts in Houston at the time and I looked at it as an anti-theft feature.

 

Not sure on what the correct procedure is but i loosened the hinge on the side of the tailgate so i could slide the assembly out with the rod and slide it back in and reaching in by the tail gate handle and grabbing it with a needle nose plyers then putting it back into the plastic clip.

 

As Buck's posted, you can remove the latch assembly and slide the rod out. Loosen or unbolt the handle assembly if necessary to gain access to the socket to re-install.

The little plastic retainer that holds the rod probably got brittle and broke. In the "help" section of the autoparts store, they will have assortments of plastic tailgate rod retainers to replace the tired originals.