Hello, I have a 1997 Baja 272 Performance. I took the batteries out for the winter and now I am unable to open up the deck for the engine compartment. I thought all I had to do was to hook up a battery to the two terminals under the seat and then use the button on the dash to lift it up. Does anyone know why this would not be working or if there is a way to manually open the compartment with no power?

Thanks!

I would not have thought you could close the hatch without a battery! How you get it closed with no battery? You have to have a battery, I thought, to run the lift whether up or down.
You have to get power to the lift somehow or pry hatch up enough to unbolt the lift from the hatch. Hatch is heavier than you think. Have you pulled up hard? Be patient someone will come on here with some more suggestions.

he probablr used the jumpers to close it and when he moved the boat and hit a few bumps the cables that were attached to the batterys came apart from each other..

Had a friend do this once,,he took a sawzall to his boat to get at the lift motor connectiond,had no other choice because he just could not lift the rear hatch

Now,he never pulls his battery's..

Sheeez, what a way to learn!

You might look at removing the hinges, mine are exposed, you might be able to slide the hatch a little if you can get to them. Next would be see if you can feed a jumper thru an air vent.

Had to do this last week......we hooked a portable car battery jumper to the fuse panel in the cabin......hit switch and wa-la.....hatch opened up and no sawzall needed........

Easy... what johnny said..

Can you access to apply power directly to the back side of the hatch switch? And once you get the hatch open, install a onboard charger and all you will have to do is plug it in..Just don't leave the plug for the charger tied up nice and neat, inside the engine compartment. I would suggest that you purchase a remote power outlet from Eddie Marine Inc. Mount it under the back seat so you can get at it.

Not sure if this is how my boat is setup or not, but quite a few of us do this trick.

We basically use the cigarette lighter to backfeed the 12V circuit. Take any cig plug, run the wires to a battery, plug into the 12C cig outlet, raise the hatch.

Been doing for years that way

Frequently there is a hatch or access panel next to the lower mount of the lift motor- you can remove a pin (like a spring loaded clevis pin) and this disconnects the bottom of the lift motor/arm; at that point you can manually lift up the hatch.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will be going back to where it is stored in a few days. Ill see if I can locate a hatch (although I didn't see one) or try using the cigarette lighter to see if I can make it go up.