the rear hatch on my1998 sport wont open, its unlocked, the handel moves, but nothing seems to want to "catch" if you know what i mean. nothing happens when i lift the handle and i cant take the back panel off from the inside because two of the screws holding it on are behing the little hydro arms that hold the door open....so...my question is how to get it open?

 

just chop it

 

id rather keep the door....i dont have money or time to go get a new one

 

This might help. It tells you how to repair it seeing that it is a common problem on xjs.
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/rea...97-01-a-31679/

 

When mine does this i just push against the lock with my butt and that forces it to open. Then when it gets open i spray wd-40 on it and it works fine for a few weeks. Have you tried the pushin back while pulling on the handle method? Both of my xj's have had this problem and that seems to fix it everytime

 

this happened to my grand cherokee and inside the panel there is a metal rod and a "clamp" type thing around it the rod slid out of the "clamp" and it wasnt grabbing enough to open the hatch i got inside and kicked the door while someone pulled on it from outside and luckily we got it open and tightened the rod and clamp thing so it would catch idk if thats your problem but thats what i would say it is

 

X2. PO got rear ended and that got knocked out. After a few weeks of getting frustrated at the broken tailgate, I just pulled out the four screws you can see while it's closed and worked my hand in until I found that rod. Pulled it, got the whole trim piece off, clipped the rod back in, wired it in so it wouldn't come back out, and put it all back together.

 

well my plastic peice on the inside is now shot, i got mad and ripped it in half, but of course its still on there......it all started when i dropped kicked the back door of my jeep cauz i was mad. but that panel i cant get behind