Grand rear door stuck!!

[SteveO]

The guy across the street can't get the rear hatch open on his late 90's Grand Cherokee.  The key turns and you can feel the mechanism lock and unlock but when you lift the handle it doesn't seem to be doing anything inside.  Is there a trick to opening the door from the inside so you can pull the panel off and fix the latch?  Thanks. ....Steve

[Mudhawg]

a BFH lol

[Luxton]

I had the same thing happen on my '01 when I had it.  Just to the left of center on the door there's a small panel, pull that of and stick your hand in.  there's a level below the bottom of the panel (so you get your wrists scrapeed up nicely) and a little to the right if memory serves.  play with that and it SHOULD 'un-stuck' it...  worst case, have someone on the outside holding the mechanism open and someone on the inside givin it a boot

g'luck

[SteveO]

There isn't a panel to take off on his.  The entire inside of the door seems to be one piece and there are screws that aren't accessible unless the door is open.  Maybe the older interiors are different than yours was.  Thanks though but let me know if I'm mis-understanding your post. ...Steve

[cLAY]

Try turning the key to full left(unlock) and pushing the button at the same time.

[AMCJeep]

Mine does this on occasion also. on my 98 what I do is lock it, unlock it and than from the outside press down on the bottom of the hatch under the handle (to close the hatch harder) and then try to open the rear hatch keeping pressure on the bottom. It's never failed us. Those actuators are a POS and as the grease gets harder they get more finnicky to operate.

Hope it works for you otherwise the panel can come off with the removal of  all 12 (2 hidden on the L-R bottom corner) and a lot of swearing as 6 of the screws are on the edge of the plastic panel accessible between the opening if you pry hard enough.

Good luck,