Wife and son used the truck to go get hay for the horses Saturday and now the tailgate won't open. If you look just under the handle you can see that the rod from the right side is not connected to the release handle.

How do you get into the tailgate to repair or replace broken pieces?

Any help would be great.

-Johnny

pop the plastic piece out from around the handle and just use your hand to pull the rod

Either that or you can remove the panel from inside the tailgate to get it open and re-connect the cable.

I have had to do this also.

Carefully remove the plastic around the handle and chances are you will see the broken piece that needs to be replaced or the rod to conect to. The dealer keeps plenty of the plastic pieces on hand (not expensive) as it is a common break.

Not sure about other parts of the country but I would say that in AZ, everyone will have this problem eventually. I have had to do it at least once in every truck I have owned.

And becareful putting the plastic bezel back on, the part that clips it in place can break pretty easily.