Technical I need your help! 1960 Nomad tailgate glass

So I was rolling my rear tail gate glass up and heard alittle pop/ crunch? Glass is about 2” up and want do anything now. The manual crank just freewheels in any position. I can’t get the gate open and can’t get the inside panel off with out the gate open? Not sure where to start? Was hoping someone has experienced this before and can shine some light on this. Thanks for the help

 

will the glass push down?

 

Hinge pins accessible from the outside?

 

They probably are, but the latch won't open with the glass up any distance at all. I don't envy the OP this situation at all. Might need to get a glass shop involved, they should have someone who has the expertise to get it done. Otherwise, sit tight, I am sure we have the right people here, just need to connect with them.

 

If it’s anything like my 63 wagon I suspect the lock cylinder assembly. The main pieces are pot metal and subject to breaking.
You may end up doing surgery on the interior panel so you can remove the crank mechanism/lock cylinder so you can then access the winder to lower the glass.
Good luck


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When you said glass I was expecting a tale of woe that you broke the rear glass......glad that's not the case. As far as the mechanism goes , there is a lever that gets pushed down when the glass is lowered all the way that allows the tailgate latch to open. You somehow need to lower the glass before you can get the tailgate open. You might be able to get the tin plate off from the inside of the tailgate if you crawl into the back. If you can get it off you may be able to lower the glass to release the lever. Be mucho careful with that rear glass! I have never seen any for sale.
Good luck!
Let us know how it goes.

 

I see an inspection camera in your future

 

I had a later model Country Squire that I needed to lower the glass in order to open the door; I was able to shine a light inside and see the mechanism that Ford used, a sort of scissor design with a coil spring to keep it in tension. I was able to pry the spring off the scissors (made a hell of a racket but it was confined to the tailgate) and lower the glass to open the gate. Once I remedied the initial fault (bad plastic power motor joint) I put the spring back and it worked fine. All that said, I don't know what GM used back there.

 

Thanks for the encouraging words! I removed the two outer stainless window channels the window was only up about 2” thanks god. Three screws with side. They are glued on from the factory so quit a bit of prying to get loose. Then hooked both cables either side to get it unlatched. Once it’s open you can remove access panel, four bolt hold the glass in a frame to the regulator. Remove glass and then four screws hold regulator in place. Then you can access window crank held in by 3 nuts. The internal key cylinder/ key way broke which allows the crank to just free wheel. Not a real good design IMO. I if the window would have been up any more I wouldn’t have been able to get to all the screws. Guess I was lucky!