My 1998 Cherokee rear door latch is closed but when you pull the handle it does not release

Push in on hatch and pull hard on handle. Once hatch opens, you need to remove hatch panel and adjust rod that goes from handle to latch. Is the power lock working inside hatch?

If all else fails, You have to climb in and remove trim panel and reach in and unlatch door. Kind of a pain. I thinking you remove screws and have to reach down in and unlatch....Scratched arm coming up......

I had the same problem as many people do with the lift gate not opening on my 1998 Jeep Gr Cherokee Limited. I tried the pushing on the tail gate and pulling the handle did not work. Went inside and removed the top half of the rear panel, reached inside, and first removed the rod from the clip holding it in and then pulled upward and the latched opened the gate, once open remove the back panel to expose the complete mechanism. In my case the handle mechanism was completely frozen from rust. I proceeded to lube the handle mechanism. It took about an 1 hr before I was able to move the slide bar bank and forth, and up and down on the side were the rod moves up and down. A little tricky here, I removed the rod from the clip to make an adjustment and the broke. I adjusted the rod and put it back in the clip and used two zip ties crisscrossed to hold the rod in place. It works fine open and closes nice. Now the power lock also works fine now that the sliding mechanism on the inside of the handle works properly. I know this is a little lengthy but it is a pretty good picture of how to fix it Chuck