New hatch, wont latch

[86Hatchback]

I finally got to putting my hatch on yesterday. Went fine except I lost a clip from one of my shocks. I also discovered my trunk now won't latch. It comes down on the "peg" like it should but it just won't latch. I've even moved the "peg" ( I don't know the proper name) further up to hopefully make it work. My cars an 86 gt, and the hatch is from an 89 gt. The whole lock assembly is from my 86. Is there a specific way to making this work? Pictures are a plus. Thanks, Nick.

[85 GT Kid]

Theres a plastic piece that fits on the striker (peg) you may need one of those cause they always break. Advance has them cheap though.

[87gtVIC]

Take a screw driver and manually lock the hatch latch by using the screw driver to do so. Just to see if the mechanism is working properly. Unlock it afterwords.

Then check the adjustors on each end of the hatch screw them in a bit and then carefully try again.

[sowaxeman]

Most likely the bushing on the striker/peg as mentioned above...if that goes, latching becomes nearly impossible and when it does, it rattles like mother fugger. I am fixing that issue on both my '82 and '83 today

[85GTTops]

Is yours a power door latch or a non-power door latch?

[86Hatchback]

Theres a plastic piece that fits on the striker (peg) you may need one of those cause they always break. Advance has them cheap though.

That would make sense, my old hatch had problems closing every once in a while too.

Most likely the bushing on the striker/peg as mentioned above...if that goes, latching becomes nearly impossible and when it does, it rattles like mother fugger. I am fixing that issue on both my '82 and '83 today

With my old hatch it usually took a few hard slams to shut my hatch but when it did It stayed shut and didn't rattle. So who knows.

Is yours a power door latch or a non-power door latch?

It's a power.

[sowaxeman]

I just put six new bushings on my '82 and 83...both hatches and all four doors. All now shut snug with minimal effort

[83gttko]

Thank you all for this post. I just found a piece of the bushing for the truck stud and got the trunk to close. I'll be at Advance later this week for the bushing. Do I just screw out the stud for the install? The 1983 has been still for nearly 20 years. Going to the strip tomorrow, fingers crossed, with a 408. It ran on the Dyno so I thought it was 100%. Then the trunk was flopping earlier today. I won't open the trunk again until I have the new bushing.