I replaced the rubber weather strip seal around the rear hatch glass. The old rubber was shrunk and left huge gaps in the lower corners were water would run right into the trunk. The new weather stripping was thicker and put more pressure on the window. Shortly after that, I noticed that my rear hatch would frequently pop open after hitting a bump. I made all sorts of adjustments to the spring loaded shaft, moving it up and down to increase or decrease the tention on the locking mechanism. In all cases, the glass would randomly still pope open.
I finally took that shaft off the glass and manually ran it through the locking mechansim to see exactly what was going on. Turns ou that there are two metal rods that retain the head of the shaft. The rods were not quite parrallel, thus when you hit a bump the rod would shift and would sometimes get released out the slightly more open side.
I took the the entire latch assembly apart. The two rods are actually part of one larger spring mechanism, and that spring assembly is located in its housing by a tiny metal tab that keeps the spring centered. My tiny metal tab and broken off. I replaced it with a nut and bolt experterly ground to size.That nut and bolt now keep the spring assembly properly centered in the housing.
The result is that the metal rods are now parrallel to eachother, which means when I hit a bump the glass no longer pops open as there is no room along those rods where the gap widens. What a silly root cause for such an annoying problem. I am glad this issue is behind me. I can now hit pot holes and rail road tracks without worrying about stuff flying out of my trunk and onto the road.
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