Hatch latch won't catch

You will be needing to find a helpful body shop and ask them to either adjust your hinges and latches, or, replace parts that are broken.
God bless your efforts.

There is a spring in the latch assembly that pulls the catch open when you press the button/lever. It may be broken which will need the unit to be replaced. Use something like a round blade of a screw driver and open the catch as you press the button/ lever.

you dont say which latch it is but check the part that latches on the stud sticking out. if its closed just pull open handle and manually flip the latch open an should work fine.

Go inside the rear hatch area remove the trim panel and manually trip the hatch release.

Go into the rear hatch cargo area and remove the trim panel over the latch and trip it manually. I know this works have done it myself on my 1996

It sounds like the lock actuator has failed or has a poor connection which won't allow the latch to release. What you will need to do is remove the inside rear hatch panel to access the lock actuator. Once you get to the latch use a flat screwdriver to release the latch being careful not to damage the glass.

----------- Click this link below for more troubleshooting:-- http://technoanswers.blogspot.com/2011/09/rear-hatch-wont-open-on-2005-gmc-yukon.html -------- This will help.Thanks.Helpmech.

I would contact your local ford dealer. I worked at a ford dealer in 2003-2005 and there was a recall for the problem youre having with the hatch not latching and the leak. It started for the 2002 explorers I believe. There were exposed holes on the roof that were leaking into the inside-we had a body shop and had the recalls performed through the body shop.
Hopefully if my memory serves me right, you could get this done for FREE!!!

We had the same problem.
I took out the bolts outside, then crawled into the back area of the car, and took a screw driver, and slid it along the inner hatch catch, and found the safety latch and released the hatch. Then I took the inside off, and disconnected the handle device from the inside. It was rusted, and broken. I went to Kia, and bought a new one and reinstalled, after greasing the new one up. Took me a while, but they wanted 280.00 in labor, so it was well worth it.
Just be patient and go slow. A good metric socket set will be the best thing, with a regular and phillips screw driver.
Good luck
David

try reajusting the latches so they catch

Fixed this last week in my Cherokee Classic. I started by releasing the hatch catch from the the interior by manually placing a flat screwdriver (something flat) under the catch, pulling the door inward, and letting the hatch open. From here unscrew all screws around the interior panel including the 2 screws under the rubber caps that mount the interior pull handle. Then carefully pull the panel, one section at a time, (carefully...this plastic is cheap) until all panel clips are free and the panel is removed. At this point you will see the inner mechanics of your door latch. Pushing your key fob lock you will see what you have been hearing, and lifting the outside handle you will see what it is supposed to be doing. As you sit in the interior of the car and face the inside of the hatch door, on the drivers side of the latch mechanism you will see a small threaded rod that is attached to the latch mechanism and the catch on the bottom of the door. This threaded rod must be adjusted/returned to the proper setting in order to lift the door catch. This entire mechanism is so cheaply made that you could have something broken in it also....but after finding the aforementioned adjustment mechanism, I realized that it would not take much for this part to self destruct. Hope this helps!