wjhmsme

I had the pleasure of trying to get my spare tire down. I looked in the manual and saw the section about the secondary locking mechanism an dfollowed their instructions - the tire still did not come down. Here is what happened and what I did to fix it.

The instructions tell you to crank the mechanism until it clicks twice (you cannot overtighten according to the book). What this does is jam the "button" up against the holding mechanism (you'll see what I am talking about). This did NOT work for me - my barrel spring was broken - the top of the barrel spring was inside of the rest of it and so the small diamater was not able to hit the button. I was unsuccessful in balancing the jack on the wheel chocks and running it up to hit the button (as suggested in the manual) since the cable is always in the way.

I ended up taking a piece of 1/4" steel with a slot in it and placing it on top of the spring with the cable thru the slot. This gave me a nice flat area on top of the spring - I cranked it up, clicked twice and the unwound the cable and this time the tire came with it.

After it came down - I lubed the secondary mechanism VERY generously. I plan on taking it to the dealer for the next oil change and asking them to lube the secondary lock (without telling about the broken spring though - they need to have the same pain in the a** - maybe then they will fix it under warranty. It is not MY fault the spring was broken - it is the first time the spare had ever been taken off and it was broken from the get go.

I hope this helps.

Old Coot

I had this happen on one of my trucks. Had to call the road service. They couldn't get it down either so they hauled the truck home. Next day I let the air out of the spare and it came right down.

mws92758

took my 2004 back to the local dealer, they cut the secondary latch mechanism off, removed the lift mechanism & clipped the cable, now its in the bed of the truck, it took almost 2 hours for the dealer to get it off!

therewolf

Anybody besides me a little pissed that it takes about an hour to find the directions in the owner's manual in the first place? It's hidden behind all the important stuff like how to turn up the volume on the radio, and how to work the power windows...

LCBilly

I'm more than pissed. I have no job, very little cash and drive with the fear that I'll pick up a nail along the highway and be stuck without a spare.

wjhmsme

I got the dealer to fix it free of charge (2006 with 40,000 miles) - the mechanic took several hours to get it down since I did not fill him in on the secret to get around the poor GM design. The new mechanism operates very nicely, but I will be taking the tire down before winter and putting it in the bed so I can get to it if I need it. Has anybody else had the broken barrel spring and tried the 1/4" plate trick?

therewolf

This is not a new model. GM has had over **90** years to get this spare tire carrier right.

They could also set up the owner's manual in a way which doesn't leave you screwed in an emergency.

Two excellent reasons GMs bankrupt...

cnwrails

I just had that problem with my 04 2500HD. I had to unbolt the winch to get the tire down. The secondary latch was sooooo rusted, I had to cut it off so that I could get the tire to release.

therewolf

I guess I've been lucky, so far. The next time I have a problem with it, I'm going to the junkyard to get one of the old-style spare wheel holders, and I'll bolt it up behind the rear axle the way it should have been in the first place.

I hope everybody at GM's real proud of themselves. They don't even have the ***** to issue a recall.

sct1886

Yes, I wish I could take the CEO and strand him in the middle of the night with a flat in a rain storm. This is a POS design. The whole thing should be intuitive. The engineer of this spare tire winch would be poster child for retro-abortion. My spare will sit in the bed until I retro it with an older carrier. No damn wonder they are in bankruptcy.