1991 Broken Trunk Cable
 

Hi guys:

The trunk cable on my 1991 Camry snapped today. I still have the cable and the hatch (which the cable is supposed to be connected to) but I need to get the cable back on to it. I have taken a pic of my hatch (without the cable on it) so you guys can have a better understanding of what I am trying to say.

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/6134/trunk.jpg

What I want to know is, do I have to put a new cable or can I re-connect the old one back, because there is a lot of slack on it. Also, I need to re-attach the hatch back onto my car, which isnt as simple as it sounds. I need to take off some parts of the trunk in order to get the bolt in there.

Can someone please help me with this? If I havent been as clear as I think, please reply and let me know if you need more clarification.

Thanks for your help in advance.

If the cable has snapped it is best to change the complete cable. Never had any success fixing this type of problem.

It should not be too hard of a problem to route a new cable, most of the trim should pull out to expose the cable.

Thats for the reply. Im thinking of finding a clamp that will attach the 2 ends of the cables together. What about putting the hatch back onto the frame? I tried doing it but it is kind of hard. Do you have any advise for this?

Can you clarify the hatch problem, this is a station wagon? What exactly is the problem?

The issues of repairing the cable are:

When using a crimp to splice the cable, the cable may be up shorter and unable to connect to the latch.

It may be possible to install some kind of coupling but it would need to be swagged onto the cable. Do you have access to the other end of the cable to due this?

Where did the cable break? If right after the cable sleeve installing a coupling etc would now prevent the cable from retracting into the sleeve. You would need to shorten the sleeve.

I basically want to know how to get the hatch back onto my car. And its not a wagon, its a sedan

Hatch or latch?

Not worth it.
 

The dealer may charge less than 10 dollars for this part. I would be sure to call and find out. I've never even seen anyone sucessfully repair these cables. The whole cable is now suspect to failure.
A repair like this is usually not worth your time to mickey mouse, and with a new part the repair should only take around 20 minutes to install.