[GeoffWW]

Hello again, Oldie,

Between the rain showers, I have managed to take the chrome cover off again and see what is between the plastic base and the chrome itself.

I undid the two small screws inboard of the end locating clips and then tried easing the base from the chrome. They would not easily separate so I just parted them in the middle to see the number plate lighting cabling. To give more access, I also removed the lock weather cover.

From what I could see through the weather cover hole, there is a rocking rectangular plastic plate which when pressed, presses up against a rectangular pressure switch that is wired into the electrical part of the locking system. This then sends an electrical signal through the wiring down to the main lock at the base of the tailgate. Please see the pictures.

The plastic plate has end lugs that locate into "guides" on the inner side of the weather cover. One of the 'lugs' of the guides had been half broken off during my removal and I have since hopefully repaired it with superglue.

So hear are 5 pictures. For the rocking plate, I have taken two, the second one upside down to get a better view into the mechanism. The fourth picture shows the locking plate, with the very small plunger inside. The final one shows the half- broken lug on the inner side of the weather cover.

Not wishing to go on further in removing the number plate lights and inner lock "switch", I have stopped at this point.

Have you tried all your connections. Maybe age is causing a bad electrical contact, resulting in your problems.

Best of luck anyway. Please let us know your final outcome and what was found to be the problem.

Geoff.