98 Plymouth Voyager Spare Tire Stuck

I "wenched" the spare tire down on my 98 Plymouth/Voyager (it's a full sized tire) and the cable came down but not the tire. The tire appears to be loose, and will rotate in place, but it's not lowering. The assumption is that something else must be holding it - but since the wire came down and the tire is loose (but not lowering) we can't imagine what could be holding it in place! The metal part that the tire hangs on is still "up" against the tire - but we can't imagine what's keeping it there since the cable came down (and can be wenched up and down freely).

The metal piece that is holding your tire up, is an upside down T (I will call a T). On its upper end is a nipple. Between the tire and the bottom of the van is a horizontal bracket that slides under this nipple. On the first half turn to lower the spare, a cam pushes on a wire that pushes the bracket toward the rear of the Caravan, releases the T, lowering the spare. The bracket rusts in the locked position so the wire does not pull it back. Somehow you must reach up over the tire on the rear side to release this bracket. It is difficult to do with a small spare tire on it so it might be very troublesome with a full tire.

Please support the tire so when and if you release the bracket the full-size tire does not fall on your head. Trying to get some of the spares weight off the T while releasing the bracket would help but might be difficult. Looking at similiar van where the spare does lower would help also.

If you can do this without swearing and cursing the engineers who designed this thing, you are a better person than I.

All Caravan owners (96 and newer for sure) should grease the bracket. Attach a string or wire to the bracket and the other end to the rear bumper so you will have a way of releasing the bracket when you need the spare.

I have exactly the identical model as you and had the same problem.
I fiddled with the thing for 15 minutes, finally I kept kicking the
tire with the bottom of my boot and it finally released.
You have to get physical, but don't injure yourself.
I also used a rubber hammer.

caravan96 described it well.

All Caravan owners (96 and newer for sure) should grease the bracket.
Worth repeating. I found out the hard way. :banghead: