Chevette rear "power" hatch release !
Mathew Babey was kind enough to send me some pics of his Chevette, and his rear hatch power release solenoid. Below is the method Mathew used to install his solenoid.
Mathew Babey's Chevette. As you can see, Mathew uses Vega GT wheels on his Canadian Chevette.
Matthew writes:
The solenoid came out of a 60's Cadillac, but you should be able to find one in any 60's or 70's vintage GM car. If you pulled one from an '85 Monte Carlo for example, it wouldn't work (I tried). The surefire thing to do is unbolt the hatch latch from your chevette (or grab the same one out of the junkyard) and wander around the junkyard comparing it to other latches til you find a match, and has a solenoid mounted on it. That's what I did.
If you look closely at the chevette latch, it has some notches and holes in the housing that don't seem to do anything, but when you have the right solenoid, you'll find that those holes match up to the solenoid perfectly so that it bolts right on. Fit the two together and you will see how it works, there is just a little tab inside the latch mechanism that gets struck by the solenoid to cause it to unlatch.
Once you have the right solenoid, you have to cut some holes and channels in the mounting bracket for the latch, so you can sandwich the bracket between the latch and solenoid. That was the hardest part. See the photo ( in the "bracket" photo, the arrows point to the holes I made ).
Re-install the bolts and that's it. Then just hook up the one wire to a switch or button
of your choice and a power source. The solenoid grounds right to the body.
To make the piece of plastic trim fit back on, over the solenoid, I used a heat gun to soften it up, then tried to make it fit by stretching it sort of. I had mixed success with this, but can't think of a better way to do it.
Note that this procedure is for newer models with the latch mounted on the body, and striker on the hatch (mine is an '85). The older chevettes had it the other way around, but it should be a similar procedure. (But don't quote me on this.)
If you want more pictures, email me at
mathewlb@shaw.ca. Some credit for this procedure should go toPretty neat installation. I would really like to have one of these. I have a
powerful hatch cylinder in
Rig 1, and when you unlock the hatch, it rises on it's own. ( most I have run across
either don't rise on there own, or won't ever hold up the hatch ) It would be
pretty cool to be able to sit in the car and raise the rear hatch with "remote
control" !