[T3] rear hatch/hinge issue

[Daniel Nohejl]

So as luck would have it, our rear hatch got stuck open yesterday. It has happened once or twice before, but it took just a bit of extra effort to get it closed. Not so yesterday as it was stuck really good and the hinge visibly flexed when we tried to close it. It turns out the hinge is now bent as hell and the hatch closes like this

http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/1600892.jpg

To get it to fully shut, we disconnected the hatch from the hinge and locked the hatch closed. We wedged a mallet in the hinge so it wouldn’t snap back and hit (and damage) the hatch

I quickly found a whole hinge and torsion bar assembly for the rear hatch on The Samba and I’ll have it by the end of the week. Overkill maybe, but I wanted to have all the parts as I don’t 100% know what went wrong. It seems the issue was the right hinge would overextend when opening and get stuck. I wish we’d figured that out before the hinge bent, but we didn’t. So what would cause this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkPkTwUdzWo

Also, has anyone had to replace a hinge before? If so, what tool did you use to remove tension from the torsion bars? I found this page which shows a special VW tool which I’d have to have made and that’s not possible. 

http://home.clara.net/hallvw/technical/tailgate.htm

I found a few recommendations on The Samba about using a brake adjusting spoon or something similar but I thought I’d ask here before buying a boatload of tools. 

Also, how does one safely remove the rear hatch and wiring without making a mess of things? 

This seems like an unpleasant job, especially in winter!


Daniel