Tailgate not unlocking
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Cross-Country
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Tailgate not unlocking
Tailgate would not open, it was not unlocking despite multiple attempts. Took it to the dealer and it was diagnosed as a faulty actuator. SA said this is the first actuator he have seen go bad on a Ford truck and had to order the part. The faulty part will be sent to Ford for analysis. Covered under warranty. Truck has 1,500 miles, so I hope this was just a weird occurrence and not a harbinger of things to come.
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Tailgate would not open, it was not unlocking despite multiple attempts. Took it to the dealer and it was diagnosed as a faulty actuator. SA said this is the first actuator he have seen go bad on a Ford truck and had to order the part. The faulty part will be sent to Ford for analysis. Covered under warranty. Truck has 1,500 miles, so I hope this was just a weird occurrence and not a harbinger of things to come.
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Cross-Country
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OK, you got me interested. What would pushing the tailgate in do, if the actuator was faulty? Are you saying the tailgate would unlock regardless of the actuator?
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What was actually happening was that one of the rubber springs was rotated 90 degrees, rendering it useless. And without the force pressing against the tailgate from the inside, pushing the tailgate outwards, the tailgate would not drop. When I pushed on the tailgate, I effectively replaced the force that that spring would have applied to the tailgate. That allowed the tailgate to drop, as soon as I let go.
On the bed, facing the tailgate, about two-thirds of the way up the bed, there are two rubber blocks. They actually act as springs. They provide force against the tailgate, so that when you hit the actuator, it is pushed away from the bed, allowing it to fall. One of my blocks had rotated itself 90 degrees, and was not applying any force on the tailgate. The actuator was fine. While I was at the service department at the dealership, I rotated the Stray block, and well, my tailgate worked like the day I bought the truck.
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