Tailgate adjustment

[SatiricalHen]

My tailgate seems kinda cocked to one side and the top of the tailgate is kinda crumpled down like someone backed into something with the tailgate down. Well it’s made it so the tailgate sits crooked and I have to pull the handle to get the tailgate to close and I have to push on the corner to get the tailgate to latch both sides. I’m completely lost when it comes to adjusting any sort of hinges and getting stuff like that correct. In fact all 4 doors on my Cherokee need to be adjusted as well as the hatch and both doors on the Comanche aren’t quite right, but I attempted adjusting once and I think I made it worse than it was before. Anyway, long winded rambling, but has anyone adjusted a tailgate on one of these and have tips/tricks/recommendations? I don’t care to be slamming my tailgate or anything I just want to be able to easily close it and it not appear crooked.

 

 

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[Strokermjcomanche]

Do you have pictures of all the gaps?

[SatiricalHen]

1 hour ago, Strokermjcomanche said:

Do you have pictures of all the gaps?

Hard to tell, but it’s tighter at the top on the drivers side and a little low, then wider at the top on the passenger side

[eaglescout526]

Your bumper looks like it might be playing with your eyes too. 

[Jesse J]

the top looks fairly level except for the drivers side a little low. but other than that it looks ok. idk why your bumper is so low though

[SatiricalHen]

Your bumper looks like it might be playing with your eyes too. 

Bumper is definitely crooked, but looking at the latches the right side hits the slopes portion and the left side his the flat so no matter how hard I slam it currently it just hits the flat and won’t close.


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[SatiricalHen]

the top looks fairly level except for the drivers side a little low. but other than that it looks ok. idk why your bumper is so low though

I have no clue, it’s what was on the truck when I bought it and that’s where it was when I bought it. It has fixed welded brackets on it so there’s no way to adjust it without cutting and welding which I just haven’t done.


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[Pete M]

had a similar issue with my trailer and it turned out that the bed itself was tweaked a little.  tried multiple 'gates and they all did the same thing.  essentially I just yanked hard on the corner of the bed to square it up, and now the gate closes cleanly.  

[eaglescout526]

I would check all the latches that are bolted to the bed itself and see if they are tweaked. When I had my truck repainted I took all the hardware off and a lot of the welded nuts broke off so they had a little bit of adjustment to play with to get them right. 

[Strokermjcomanche]

 As Pete mentioned the top of the passenger side of the bed needs pulled in to make the gap straight on the passenger  side. Also you need to check and see if there is any excessive play  in the tailgate Pivots . if there is excessive play you can reduce the tolerance between the two on the drivers side and that will raise the tailgate on the driver side to match the top body line on the bed.  There is a good possibility of somebody backed up into something, that when they did they bent the circle part of the tailgate pivot into a bit of an oval shape.