Hijacker: THANK YOU! I owe you, man. I tried switching them around and the metal rod only held when I put it in the slot, but then it would not open the lock. I spent 3 hours (yes, three hours) lying on my stomach in the car, and another half hour outside the car, trying to figure this out. It never occurred to me that I was missing a piece.
I will try to rig up something that will hold the metal rod/bar in place- now that it makes sense to me that I must be missing a piece to hold the rod/bar into the circle.
Long story short: My buddy bought this brand new back in 1991. I drove him to the dealer to pick it up. He got married, moved to Seattle, and drove it for 20 years. Then he gave me the car. I have been working on it every other weekend and thought I would tackle the removal of the foam "rust sponge" trunk lid spoiler, and that led to the removal and cleaning of the lock that has not been used in 15 years (his wife broke a key in there, lol). I was putting it all back together and realized I never took a picture of it assembled, so I was clueless.
Again, thank you.
