Pontiac Transport liftgate handle

I'll have to look @ my buddy's and see if it is really glued....I'll hopefully post back later with some help ;)

I had a Lumina APV and an Olds Silhouette, both had the same problem..

The liftgate latch is mechanical....not glued on....and not reattachable

With the olds I was lucky enough to carry the liftgate latch with me and connect it to the cylinder when I needed to open the liftgate. This worked for about a year, but eventually the parts wore away so that the latch needs to be replaced. I used to carry the handle in my car, and push it back onto the cylinder whenever I needed to open the liftgate, and then removed it and placed it back inside the car. Didn't matter that the liftgate cylinder was set to the open position, because no one was going to open it up without the latch handle.

Tip.... the latch has two positions, locked and unlocked. If you use the key to move the latch to the unlocked position, this makes it a lot easier to push the broken handle back on and turn it to open the latch as no key is necessary. Takes a little fidgeting but works in an emergency. Remember to pop the handle back off when you finish opening the door, otherwise it will just fall off by itself and probably become lost.

with the Lumina, I replaced the latch...cost was $35.00 and about 2 hours labor if you haven't done one before. I rekeyed the new cylinder myself, which was a big mistake as there are a lot of small springs and a brass plate which were not very cooperative. The dealer would have charged $35. to rekey the cylinder. In retrospect, this would have saved a lot of time and trouble.

hth