Release jammed rear trunk latch

[jcthorne]

Was an interesting weekend at Thornoli's. I learned something an thought I would take the time to share it.
We had a customer in for an LED flag install (among other things) on an RT which involves removal of rear body panels and lowering the rear fender.
On reassembly, all went normally, all the lights worked and the bike was cleaned up and delivered to the customer. Except....
The rear trunk lid would not open. Quite the delema as all access to the latch seems to require the lid open. But thanks to Kenny Butler, and a few other great folks I am privledged to work with in the Spyder community, some suggestions on how to get the lid open were made. But, with out a clear image of what I was trying to do it was not an easy fix. Until it worked.
Under the LEFT saddle bag release lever, up in the top left corner is a hole in the bezel. Sticking a 10" screwdriver up through that hole allows access to the end of the latch release lever. Sound great but a picture is worth a thousand words here.
Below are two images of the screwdriver in position to release the latch but with the cover off so you can see.
Oh, and don't worry, the access hole is not accessible when the latches are locked with the key.
And in case any one was wondering the cause of the jam, the plastic tabs on the micro switch for the lid open warning were broken from the lid being closed hard a time or three from a less than perfect latch adjustment. All fixed now.

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[taxmyzer]

Good to know!

[Lew L]

Thank you JT,

That is very good to know.

I have emergency cable releases on both the frunk and the seat. #3 is the charm.

Lew L

[ClayJ]

This thread came in very handy. I had a broken trunk repaired a few weeks ago, just before a long ride. Of course, the trunk quit working in the middle of the ride, and I wound up stuffing all my clothes into a trash bag tied to the back seat for the ride home.

I was just about ready to waste the 3+ hours to ride to the mechanic, hoping someone would be available to fix it when it finally occurred to me to check these boards. I'd searched youtube to no avail previously. An hour of reading threads mostly about the "front trunk" and I finally stumbled across this thread.

Some notes to the opening post:

1. You don't need a 10" screwdriver; in fact, I don't think it would fit. 6 inch (blade) will do fine.
2. I tried and tried to trip the latch through the left saddlebag hole but had no luck
3. It occurred to me that if there's a hole on the left side, maybe there's a hole on the right, and since my right latch wouldn't open, I should try that.
4. It didn't take long before the right latch popped open, and I had access to the trunk

After I removed the rear tupperware, it was obvious what had happened.
The 2 latches are connected by an aluminum rod. The rod pokes through left and right latches but the release cable only goes to the left latch, then the movement of the left latch is transferred through the tie bar to the right latch.
The retainer that holds the rod into the left latch was broken. It was likely broken by the mechanic, then just reused rather than replaced and after a time, the bar just wiggled loose.
I used a small zip tie to strap the rod into the retainer and all seems to work well. The zip tie doesn't interfere with anything.

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[davev1pa]

Appreciate the head's up....my luck I'd snag the microswitch with the end of a screwdriver...but while lubing the seat latch I forgot these so thanks for the reminders!!

[Firemaurer]

I pulled my winter cover off my 2012 RT Limited and went to open the rear trunk latch and lo and behold, nothing happened when I moved the latch. I first looked all over YouTube, certain somebody has had the same issue, but could not find a solution. Was at my local dealer and explained the problem to them and they had no idea how to get into the rear trunk. “If it was the front trunk, we could tell you an easy way but never had the issue in the rear, so we are not sure”. So glad I did look on this forum. Inserted the screwdriver into the left latch and bam open sesame. Just a couple of notes. One is that there are actually 2 openings in the left latch. The bigger one to the far left is the golden ticket not the smaller hole. Ask me how I know. �� Second, you really don’t need a very long screwdriver at all, it’s literally just past the slot when you insert the screwdriver. Just wanted to say thank you for this awesome fix.