Anyone adjusted their rear liftgate?

OK, So my rear liftgate seems to be sagging off of its hinges. Is there a way to adjust these. My FSM isn't much help. I'm hoping one of you body guys out there has played with these before. The POS fiberglass is starting to rub on the bumper and on some of the interior plastic. It's making an awful damn squeak plus, its wearing through the fiberglass. Thanks for any help.

There are shims between the hinges and the roof. I had to add more shims on my daughter's XJ. Made my own but maybe you can buy them from the dealer.

is there any way to adjust the fittment of the liftgate to the hinges? That is where mine seems to be off. I have about a .25 inch gap between the liftgate and the hinge on one side.

The hinge is supposed to bolt up tight to the liftgate, and uses shims to "fill the gap" as necessary for alignment.

If you have a gap between the hinge and the liftgate, then either the hinge bolts are loose, or the fiberglass hatch is deteriorating in the area of the hinge.

So I went out and checked. All my bolts seem to be tight and there does not appear to be any kind of damage to the fiberglass. It looks as if the holes for the screws might just be in the wrong place. Does anyone else out there have a poorly fit liftgate? I'm going to try shimming up the hinges next.

"holes in the wrong place" does not sound right. The holes are drilled by machine at the factory, so it's REAL unlikely they were mislocated.

I would start with this: the shims on the older XJ's are located on the body side of the hinge, if I am not mistaken. (My 1992 is gone to the great boneyard in the sky, so I am doing this from memory.) To raise the liftgate, you need to ADD shims between the hinge and the body on the body side. Do you have shims now? If so, are they on the body side? I would suspect that shims are a dealer-only item, so figure on getting them in some sort of package or kit.

I guess I would be asking a real basic question here--why is the liftgate "dropped" on the body such that it does not align? I know that the earlier XJ's had less than impressive fit of body panels, but for the vehicle to leave the factory with a obviously poorly fit liftgate seems unlikely. That means the liftgate has "sagged" over the years. So my question is--what's happened such that the gate has sagged? Somethings going on here that may not be obvious.......

I have a feeling that my XJ got hit in the rear at some point. The bumper is a little tweaked and there is some veeeery slight paint differences between the gate and the body itself. I have a feeling something wasn't drilled right when they slapped it back together, but that wouldn't explain the sagging over time. I don't know. I'll have to pick up some shims this weekend and gie that a try. The next step is taking it to a body shop and praying I don't get raped.

I bought my 90 off the lot new. I have over 163K. The dealer "fixed" the rubbing of the gate within 2 months of purchase. It has been rubbing for the last 10 years! The shim stack is 4 high on one side and 2 on the other. What bothers me most is the cracking on the right inside by the window. I believe this is a common problem and wonder when the thing will fall off!

This is a common problem with the older XJ's (mine is an '88) with the fiberglass liftgates and the hinges that need to be shimmed to fit. I had to have the fiberglass repaired on the pilliar next to the window on my hatch. After replacing the seal and with the newly repaired gate it took 6 shimms on one side and 3 on the other just to get it to close without binding. I still rubs just a bit around the latch mechanisim, but it closes without binding and doesn't leak - good enough. It takes some time a lot of practice to get it right. Good Luck.

Woody