Trunk lock drives me crazy

[Tevel Jean-Jacques]

Morning all,

I'm having lots of troubles trying to set the position of the trunk floor hook on my 4 doors 52 Manhattan. The mechanism is brand new and work perfectly well when closing it manually by inserting a screw driver in the mobile lock and reproducing the hook movement. The key unlock phase also work fine.

I tried to move the trunk floor hook higher ans lower, moved it front and rear, tried to tilt it, but no positioning seems to make it work.

Should anyone have a picture of it, and maybe some sort of procedure to properly set that part.

Many thanks in advance for your help and advises.
Have a great day.
JJ.

[joefrazer]

It sounds like the latch mechanism isn't latching when you close the trunk by lowering the lid. Try lowering the trunk lid by hand to where it should latch and then push down on the handle with some pressure to see if that makes the latch work. You can try putting a little heavy grease on the floor hook to see if that helps. Every car is different - over the years things like new gaskets, bent hooks, and other things will force owners to adjust the mechanism so a picture probably won't help since the fix for my car might not work for yours.

The typical adjustments are fore and aft (front and back) and adding washers under the hook to raise it up a bit.

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

1952 Kaisers use both the 1951 Kaiser & Frazer Shop Manual along with the 1952-1953 Kaiser supplement to the 1951 book.  Suggestions from the factory for your problem will be found on pages 254-256 (including the illustration on page 256) of the 1951 book.  If your problem is related to the "pop-up" and lock assembly, you will need to check the REAR COMPARTMENT section of the supplement.

[Tevel Jean-Jacques]

Hi there,

Thanks a lot for those advises. I will try them as soon as I can and let you know the results.

Thanks again and have a great day.
JJ

[Bob L.]

I had to fiddle/make a new stationary latch on my 54 Manhattan to get it to latch correctly when I replaced the key latch.   Used a alum strip to shim under/raise it so it would latch.  Went looking for photos, only found one.  Hard to see, hope it helps.

Bob L.

[Tevel Jean-Jacques]

Will try that way and let you know.

Sorry for the late reply.
Have a great day.
JJ.

[Tevel Jean-Jacques]

Hey guys,

Job done. Just added a 3mm aluminium plate to raise the stationary latch....... and it works perfect.

Thanks to Bob for the advises.

Have a great day all.
JJ

[thej63]

While we're on the subject of trunk locks....

The latch on my trunk keeps unlatching while driving. I make sure to apply pressure to the trunk when I close the latch...and it give it a test lift and everything is always secure. However, by the time we get to our destination, the trunk latch has managed to lift itself up and the trunk isn't latched anymore.

Has anyone had this issue/have a solution for it?