Hello All
Just thought I'd give a heads up to ... well, watch your head.
This weekend one of the liftgate brackets finally went on my 1992. I never had the recall fix done, figuring that I would see the liftgate brackets begin to separate. The upper right one (the one attached to the liftgate, not the body) snapped off with no warning. Good thing my head wasn't in the way.
I called the dealer today to have the recall fix done, and the service rep said they had on break off on a 2002 model assigned to one of the dealership employees. Coincidentally, he said they were talking to someone about Ford had fixed the problem years back when all of sudden the bracket went. He said he couldn't believe it.
I don't know if this is an isolated case. But it might be worth giving things a look-see, though, as I said, mine went completely without warning.
In my case, a friend was with me at the time. We immediately looked at the bracket on her Pathfinder. Nissan actually had bolted it on. The Explorer one looks as those it was welded or something.