Yesterday Xerces_Blackthorne came over and we did some work on his 88 coupe, well he did most of the work while I cleaned my shed out of some "extra" fiero parts he could use.

Here he is installing the solonoid to the trunk release:



found out that this is a simple mod to do, plug and play the release switch, relay, solonoid... the hardest part(what we're planning to do today) is routing the wire down thru the decklid and connect to the 4 prong connector.

oh, and a big + to the forum, we couldnt figure out why the solonoid would not click(decklid was up in the air), thx to the forum search function we found the problem was just the ground and works fine when latch is connected (down position).

Here's a tip take some string and attach it to the top where the lock is. Just tie it onto the old wire pull it out in the engine compartment. it's a hard plastic but it will bend if needed. Then take the new wiring with the fourth wire for the decklid release and tie it on and pull it through. It's really simple I guess if you have the other wiring harness. Good luck. You can do it with the decklid on the car too. I've done it to about 5 Fieros already. Simple easy mod.
Matt J

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MRJ

Yea, it was an easy install. What I am thinking of doing to get the wire down through the decklid is getting ahold of a friend of mine for about 4-5 feet of TIG welding wire (or is it MIG? i always get em confused...)

Took us 15 minutes to get everything put together, but about 4 hours to figure out why the #$%* it wouldnt pop the latch...Me and my overengineering... Didn't know the solenoid was grounded by the latch hook and that the trunk had to be closed for the circuit to be complete...

As the bossman said, an A+ and thanks goes to the forum. Sadly we porbably won't get much done today/tonight. My dumbass forgot to take my prescriptions last night. I only just woke up about 15 minutes ago or so... was up coughing all night...

Today will be material collecting day. Tomorrow, finish the decklid switch wiring, fiberglass a head liner board, get front tires mounted, and some other odds and ends... Thats about it for this adventure though so far.

Is all the wiring already in the car even if the electric latch option wasn't ordered? I have a dash switch and a spare deck lid with the electric latch. Is it really plug and play??

My car had it, its an 88. Not sure if the other ones before this did or not. I first stumbled upon the wiring when I was cleaning nooks and crannies in the car and pulled the bezel with the rear defroster switch out. Found the plug end for the rear decklid release tucked in behind there. Luckily Andrew had a Helms manual with wiring diagrams. We found the plug for the relay under the kick panel on the drivers side, right next to the steering column. Take the 4 bolts out (7 mm) and pull the panel down, then you will see it. There are 3 holes in the bracket in a pyramid shape. Has a thick yellow wire going to it, a gray wire with black stripe, a yellow wire with a black stripe, and I think a black wire. The fat yellow wire runs up from the back of the plug towards the steering wheel (goes to ignition switch). The plug for the solenoid is in the trunk, right below the plastic upright piece for the battery. follow the wires from the light switch down to the bottom right hand side of the decklid (when open) and you should see a 4 wire plug with 3 wires in it. All you have to do is bend the small tab on the back of the lock mechanism back, bolt the solenoid in, run a wire (we used 16 gauge wire that Andrew had laying around with plenty of extra slack) with the solenoid connector to the plug, and stuff the bare end of the wire into the empty hole on the plug. To make things easy, you can open the plug up (2 lock tabs on the side) and solder the bare end of the wire, then wrap electrical tape around the casing of the wire just above where it is bare (about 5-6 twists, enough so it stays put when you close the lock tabs. Heat shrink tubing would work also) and then stuff it into the hole. Plug it back in, close the trunk, and hit the switch. should work unless you have a bad relay, solenoid, switch, or wiring problem.