legacycentral bbs

Just got my 1990 Legacy L Wagon today. I went to open the back hatch and ummmm no handle??? I am assuming it should be under the chrome strip above the licence plate right?

Anyway its not there and I dont know how to get the hatch open to even rig a pull cable up. Can anyone help me out here?

Yeah the handle should be there. You can try looking up and see if the handle is there but the linkage may be disconnector, or see if the handle is completely gone.

Probably the only way you'll be able to get it open is to try and pull the plastic trim off the interior of the hatch to access the linkage mechanism so you can open the hatch.

Ok so from what I have found there is no handle and the linkage is crappy at best. Someone jerry riged a peice of wire, but you have to wrinkle your nose, stand on one foot, cross your eyes, cross yor toes, pray, and if your lucky you might hit just the right spot and it will open just before you are about to give up.

On the upside I found a 1993 legacy at the junk yard today. Is the parts on the 93 the same as a 90? If so I could just gut the hatch on the 93 to fix mine.

There were some exterior body changes, but the mechanical guts are probably the same. You can try looking at the parts book I posted in the stuff you need to know forum. You can look at that section for the rear hatch and see if the part #'s are the same or not.

they should be the same

Although it's getting old, they might also still have them at the dealer. I bought one years ago and I remember it being pretty cheap—approximately junk yard price. Don't let them sell you the reflector or the metal underneath the handle—you only need the plastic handle assembly, maybe the nylon bushing where the linkage goes in. There are two issues with the hatch—the plastic of the handle can get brittle and break at the hinge, linkage points and the other is the piece of metal it sits on top of is the cheapest metal they use on the car. I don't think it's galvanized.

Until you get the handle, once you have the hatch open, you can remove the inner tailgate panel and access the linkage much better and open it from the inside.