Tailgate Latch Internals Broken Shut

Driver side internals busted, now the actual latch appears to be jammed underneath the D ring. Can't pry it either direction far enough to free it up and can't access the bolts while the gate is up. Suggestions?

Edit - linkage is off i know, the part it is attached to inside the mechanism is broken so it was doing nothing.

 

You need a real thin 12mm wrench to get between the bed and the tailgate to get the latch bolts off of the bed (the "ring", bolted to the bed, not the tailgate).

Might be best to buy a cheap one and grind it down.

Then you can unbolt and replace the mechanisms from the bed.

 

get you some thin pieces of metal to slide top and bottom of the D ring. Should in theory rotate the hooks out of the way.

 

Go buy a cheap thin 12mm wrench at a bike shop. They use them to get to the wheel bearings.

 

I tried shimming mine with the bed down. When it's fully closed it's positively retained and there's no way to shim the release.

 

It looks like the linkage cam lever overrode the latch in your assembly, so it now it is on the wrong side of the latch.

Unless something else is broken internally, you just need to push down on the secondary lever with a flathead screwdriver or pry bar. Here's what I mean:



Here is a description of how I fixed this problem on my truck:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/mk5-adventures.567028/page-5#post-26015046

In my opinion the latch mechanism isn't very well designed, it eventually gets pried apart, leading to this situation. It was suggested that pushing the tailgate forward to relieve pressure before opening the latch could preserve its life. But I am glad I welded mine together so they can't randomly get jammed any more.