Lubrication is the key, I've only broken ONE (on somebody else's Esprit! :facepalm ) and my car's cable is still OE. <--- JINXVery common, I've broken 3 so far...
Do everything you can to reduce friction when you replace that.
Real easy if the hatch is already open. The hard part is getting the hatch open when it breaksHow involved of a process is it to replace the rear hatch release cable on the older (83-87) Esprits? I wonder if it is something that could be replaced as a preventative measure
Thinking this through,I tried setting up a solenoid driven back-up system
I am opening mine trunk with my remote and I have a safety feature to open it from the bottom with two latches I can pull from for each side if the battery goes dead.
Right before I had to sell my former car many years ago this was the last topic of discussion between a small group that never got resolved.Boy, is there a straightforward replacement for the whole hatch release system that anyone has ever developed? I tried setting up a solenoid driven back-up system but it never worked properly and I finally removed it. It would be very cool to have two small powerful solenoids which could be mounted adjacent to each latching mechanism which would pull the slide open and release the hatch. I tried using two center-mounted solenoids and ran sheathed bicycle cables to the latches (which were modified to accept a second cable). It "sort of" worked but then would fail. The solenoids triggered but the amount of flex for the relatively long cables just did not prove adequate. I think the idea would work if you could locate solenoids in line with the latches and used a relatively short and direct cable connection. But, I've never located and appropriately powerful solenoid or figured out how to unobtrusively mount it.