Chevy avalanche/spare tire remove
If you are having problems getting the safety interlock to disengage, this is what I did to get the spare down on my 03 that I got about a month ago. I don't think the spare was ever brought down, so everything was rusted. I tried what the manual says: Use your ignition key to open the tube on the right side of the license plate. Then take the two jack handle extensions, and put them together. Put the open square end into the tube until it stops. Then use the lug wrench/ jack handle on the exposed closed square end and turn it counter clockwise to lower the tire. If this only gets the tire to lower a few inches then stop, turn the handle clockwise until it is tight and clicks twice. This is supposed to release the safety interlock, if repeated attempts of this procedure don't work, you are supposed to use the jack to push up on the center of the cable end until you hear a pop, with is the latch releasing. If this does not work, you can try what I did. Let me suggest also that if you have an older vehicle, it would be best to see if you can get the spare down at home, in your garage or driveway, before you need to do it on the roadside. I'm glad I did. I used two jacks to hold the tire all the way up as if it hadn't been lowered at all (you could also stack up some blocks of wood under the tire before you lower the cable). Be sure to leave yourself access in the center of the tire as you will need to get in under the hub. Now, if you haven't already, lower the cable about 8-10 inches so that everything is slack (the tire should not move!). Look up at the safety interlock, it is something like an upside-down "T". You should be able to rotate it around the cable now. The middle of this upside down "T" is rounded, but has four sides. One of the sides has a hook on it, and that is the safety catch. Two sides should be painted black, and two are plated (or rusted!). You need to figure out which side is the side that has the hook on it, it is one of the plated, not painted sides. Once you know which side has the hook, you can use a long screwdriver to push it towards the center, which will stop the hook from catching and allow you to pull the safety interlock down and free from the lip that it was caught on. Now you just need to lower the jacks or kick out the wood blocks and you can remove the tire. I soaked the whole works with penetrating oil the night before I did all this (when I discovered that I couldn't get the spare down). Once I got everything out, I soaked it with more oil and cleaned it the best I could. I'm not sure if the safety interlock will work again, but I cleaned and painted the cable end, and will make it a yearly thing to check and maintain the cable and end so that the cable doesn't fail and I don't need to worry about the interlock. Hope this helps.