Tailgate handle repair

[schardein]

I guess little things get me excited.

I've had this chrome tailgate handle for a while, but the pass side link retainer broke while I was removing it.  Been sitting in my parts cabinet for about a year.  Did a little research, turns out the tailgate latch on a Renix era XJ uses the same piece.  Scored one today and did a quick swap out.

 

For the record, later XJs use retainers that are all plastic, and I think those would work as well.  I was wanting a metal one like original.

[eaglescout526]

The metal ones are vastly superior. I had one of the plastic inserts break and I just took a plastic one, cut the hook off and used it to retain the metal one. 

[schardein]

7 minutes ago, eaglescout526 said:

The metal ones are vastly superior. I had one of the plastic inserts break and I just took a plastic one, cut the hook off and used it to retain the metal one. 

 

8 minutes ago, eaglescout526 said:

The metal ones are vastly superior. I had one of the plastic inserts break and I just took a plastic one, cut the hook off and used it to retain the metal one. 

Brilliant!  I mangled the plastic retainer getting the part off the XJ, since I had to hold the gate open with one arm (gas struts were gone).  Wasn't worried as I knew the one on the MJ latch was good.  But I have extra plastic type retainers and might not have thought to mod them.

[ghetdjc320]

Wouldn’t door lock linkage retainers work also? They’re all over the place online and come in metal or plastic

[schardein]

40 minutes ago, ghetdjc320 said:

Wouldn’t door lock linkage retainers work also? They’re all over the place online and come in metal or plastic

I'd say yes, these are the same thing.  I never looked online.  Just did a quick search, they are out there but I didn't see an exact match.