i fixed my broken liftgate today.. was a very, very simple fix, and ive noticed many people have in fact broken their liftgates before... so ill post what i did, in hopes that someday it could help someone else...

when i pulled up the handle on my liftgate, it would do nothing, the handle would come up, but that was it, wouldnt even spring back down when i let go of it... upon inspection theres a plastic shelf on the backside of the handle that as the handle is lifted, it pivots against a metal bar which operates the latch

this plastic shelf had snapped off, rendering the liftgate useless.. a major design flaw because if someone tried too hard to open a locked liftgate, or pulled it open too hard it could snap off, which is probably what happened before i bought the jeep

anyway.. the fix, and im kind of ashamed of myself for doing this as its essentially jury rigging, but OK because in my opinion makes for a stronger liftgate handle... where the plastic tab that contacts the metal bar had snapped, i heated a tiny little nail and pressed it into the center of the broken area.. since i didnt have a small drill bit to use instead.. then drove a rather small screw into the plastic... now when the handle is pulled up, the screw pressed the metal bar down causing the liftgate to open.. voila, fixed, and it only costed me a single screw which i had laying around in a bucket

this screw wont snap like the plastic did, so its a long term fix, and well... anyone with a liftgate broken in this same way can fix it easily with just a screw