Removing 88LX Rear Hatch

[Twistiva]

Guys -

I bought an 88LX rear hatch with defrost and rear wiper a week ago from a guy that owned a parts car and now I need to take it off his parts car.

Are there any "gotchas" I need to be aware of when taking the hatch off?

I know there will be electrics for the defrost, for the wiper arm and the wiper pump. Does the wiring plug in at/near the rear hatch or am I going to be pulling wiring that runs all the way up to the dash area? If I'm pulling wiring that runs all the way to the dash area, are there any tricks do it smart / easily?

The only Festiva I've ever owned is an 88L that doesn't have these options so I appreciate anyone's words of wisdom on this.

Thanks!

[Prafeston]

Twistiva. Don't over think it. It's really quite easy. I pulled a hatch from a 90+ model, but I imagine it's the same. There was a connector that you have to unplug in the area behind the drivers side taillight (This connector migh tbe hidden behind some blue tape stuff) and all that wiring is in one loom that goes up to the left side of the hatch. You will have to wiggle it around maybe to get it to come all the way through. You'll also have to pop off the weather plug thing there in the left side of the car body to start pulling that loom up.

Then in the center you'll have another weather plug thing you'll have to remove from where the washer tube goes up to the nozzle. You can unplug the tube there and pull that tub down toward the area behind the passenger side taillight. (This is the thing that is a BIA!!! to route back up when you go to install it on your car.)

After that you should just have 4 bolts/nuts can't remember which they were and remove the hatch from the hinges. Really quite easy. Don't forget to grab your washer bottle and stuff from behind the passenger taillight.

[Prafeston]

When installing the hatch and you are trying to route the washer tube back up to the nozzle....I used the thinnest coat hanger I could find and I taped the tube to one end and routed it up to the top corner. (Oh before doing this take out the push screw things that hold the back of the headliner up. Pop it down as far as you feel comfortable...at least until you can see up in the corner where you'll be routing the tube.) When I got it up to the corner there I took the tape off the coat hanger and pulled some excess through and let it hand down. Then I took the wing window off on the passenger side and pulled the excess tubing through the window hole. Taped the tube back to the coat hanger and from there the angle to route the tube through the roof of the car is much easier. When you get it to the hole where it needs to be pulled back through untape it from the coat hanger and pull it through and connect it back to the nozzle tube. Then pop your weather plug thing back in. Hopefully this all makes since when you get to that!

[hasteranger]

some style trunk locks require you to have the key to take the old cylinder out if you want to swap it for yours... haven't done a festiva so don't know if this is the case for them, but it is for many older nissan cars. so if you want to try and swap lock cylinders you may want to ask the owner for a duplicate key.

[Twistiva]

some style trunk locks require you to have the key to take the old cylinder out if you want to swap it for yours... haven't done a festiva so don't know if this is the case for them, but it is for many older nissan cars. so if you want to try and swap lock cylinders you may want to ask the owner for a duplicate key.

Hmmm.....the key lock cylinder. Hadn't thought of that. Thanks!