Rear hatch weatherstripping

[east302]

I’m pretty sure that the flap is supposed to extend over the top of the lift gate as I see no useful purpose for it otherwise. It’s a ***** to get in place without pulling the liftgate hinges off.

I bought it (and the larger surround piece) from LMC Truck. It’s number 1 and 2:

https://www.lmctruck.com/1992-99-chevy-gmc/bed-tailgate/csd-1992-99-tailgate-and-liftgate-components




You can try adjusting the lift gate hinges to see if you can push it in more, but I never could get it to a good place. My issue was more in a misalignment of the entire tailgate, there is a gap between the top of the tail gate and the bottom of the lift gate where water comes in. I rigged the weatherstrip on the top of the tailgate to be raised up more, closing the gap.

I’ve seen others with the exact same issue and no real solution. I’m starting to think it was just built this way.

 

[Kyle Fuller]

I’m pretty sure that the flap is supposed to extend over the top of the lift gate as I see no useful purpose for it otherwise. It’s a ***** to get in place without pulling the liftgate hinges off.

I bought it (and the larger surround piece) from LMC Truck. It’s number 1 and 2:

https://www.lmctruck.com/1992-99-chevy-gmc/bed-tailgate/csd-1992-99-tailgate-and-liftgate-components




You can try adjusting the lift gate hinges to see if you can push it in more, but I never could get it to a good place. My issue was more in a misalignment of the entire tailgate, there is a gap between the top of the tail gate and the bottom of the lift gate where water comes in. I rigged the weatherstrip on the top of the tailgate to be raised up more, closing the gap.

I’ve seen others with the exact same issue and no real solution. I’m starting to think it was just built this way.

Ok thanks for the help! Just ordered both parts from LMC, gonna stick em on this week!! And yeah I see no other explanation than that flap going over the liftgate. Probably could've just lifted the old one over and fixed my problem but I'll feel lots better with new stripping, new adhesive, on a clean surface. I'm about to really clean this Tahoe up and get it back to 100 percent so I may reach back out for more advice!! Thanks again!!

 

[Kyle Fuller]

So I got my parts in from LMC (they were a perfect fit). Put the weather strip on with adhesive and seems to hold nicely. But this upper roof drip weather strip is a different story just like you said. As you warned, it is a ***** to work over the liftgate and won't stay over it. Idk what to do from here. I decided against putting it on with adhesive because i knew I'd be pulling on the lip to get over liftgate and I wanted it to be movable. I'm thinking put the adhesive on the lip and glass to hold it up over the top but im assuming it needs to be flexible for opening/closing??!! Maybe I can rig old weather strip up and wedge it between roof and rubber lip to hold it over glass??!! Those are only two ideas I've come up with. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[east302]

I think I went through two sets of those trying to solve my problem. The first was an LMC part and it wouldn’t stay over the glass. Thinking that was the problem, I then got the GM version but it was the same as the LMC one. For whatever reason, it does barely stay over the glass but I tore mine in a few places trying to shove it through the gap. I think I ended up not pushing it all the way onto the flange.

It’s been a while, but I want to say that the original one had a longer flap for the glass. Could be wrong, though.

I would try moving the liftglass “in” some at the top. Each hinge has four nuts though there isn’t a ton of adjustment available. I had mixed results doing it, but the best way that I could think of was to loosen all four, shut the glass, have someone pushing in at the top corners while tightening the nuts down from the inside. At the same time, slide it side to side to get it centered the best you can. Even then, it sort of settled to a different position.

I seriously doubt that GM went through this much effort to install these, but it flat out drove me nuts. The factory manual offers no guidance. They either had some magic guru robot that placed it precisely right or just winged it and half these things left the factory with a leak.

 

[Kyle Fuller]

Ok thanks for the response. I'll try and see what happens

 

[east302]

Here are the pages from 1995 and 98 service manuals. It looks like the flap goes over. I couldn’t find anything covering the hinges on the liftglass style, only for the barn doors.

1995:




And 1998:

 

[WestPalm83]

Did you ever solve this? Im having the same issue on a yukon i just bought.

 

[east302]

Nope, but maybe some of these other posters found a solution.

I got to the “about to throw a hammer at something” stage and gave up. With the rigged seal on the tailgate top, it’s dry now. Glass still sticks out on the right more than the left and I notice that the factory welded panels that incorporate the tailgate strikers aren’t level with each other, probably causing the tailgate to not close level with the glass.

I think my truck was just born this way. Maybe it was a Friday afternoon. I vaguely remember them having strikes around 98 or so.

 

[east302]

Ridiculous setup to keep it from leaking, RTV on top and cardboard shoved under the gasket to raise it with RTV in the gap:

 

[WestPalm83]

taking a closer look at it, i noticed that where the tailgate and glass meet the rubber seal is different there. it has a solid core for about 6 inches in that section. it seems to me that the glass cant close all the way due to binding up on that solid part of the seal which then causes the misalignment and leaking. have you investigated that? i might but a new seal or one without that solid section