Found the Mfgr. of my hatch lift that's in my 2000 Formula & they did the repairs needed (5-6 yrs ago):

Motion Systems
600 Industrial Way West
Eatontown, NJ 07724
732-222-1800

Hope this helps & they are still around !!

John

I want to say that mine is made by "tomlinson", but i could be wrong. Is this one that you guys deal with or that could be repaired with the actuator you currently have?

Yeah, electrical starvation burns up the motors on these puppies.

Best bet is to buy a relay kit and use the small wiring from the dash to turn the relays on and off, and run #6 wire directly from the batteries to the relays, and to the hatch motor. If you ever put a voltmeter at the motor while it is going up, you will see what kind of voltage starvation it has to put up with when it runs off the dash wiring. This keeps the motors running for a long time.

Also make sure you keep the acme screw threads greased in the ram. They drag badly when not lubed.

I did a custom installation for a guy and we used gas struts to counterbalance the weight. That way, instead of the ram pushing up 200 pounds, it only had to push up about 80. And it actually had to pull the hatch back down about halfway. The ram motor hardly sounded loaded. Those gas struts are available for $40 apiece up to 300 pounds of force.

ive got mine wired up with the relay already, just still looking around for a new motor for it. used some left over 8gauge wire from my amp install, so it should work pretty quickly once replaced. im almost ready to just break down and buy the whole assembly. my hatch is getting recovered this week, and i need to have the new lift readt to go by the time its done.

If you buy a whole new unit, it would be interesting for you to wire it the old way, then try it with the 8ga wire to see how much better it works.

I would try it if i didnt have it wired already, but i have read enough on OSO that im sure it will be night and day compaired to the stock wiring.