Took it by the shop yesterday and the service tech was nice enough to spend ~30 mins going over possible root causes for the issue without having me drop it off.

We checked for power at each location from the handle itself to what was under the plastic ceiling cover at the rear hatch and all connections had power.

He tried to jumper the two wires that attach to the handle but got nothing. Reading @DakotaTravler post above though it seems that may not have been the right location to try to jumper.

The tech said he isn't sure what is wrong with it and that it could be an electrical issue or the latch. I got the new actuator and latch from Atlantic British and think they have quality stuff.

For him to continue diagnosing plus the fix it would probably come to an amount that doesn't make financial sense to have it repaired professionally.

One question I do have, considering when the master lock/unlock buttons are pressed the latch opens half way, could I use something springy to attach to the tailgate near the latch that effectively pushes open the upper hatch when those buttons are pushed? As it is now I need a 2nd person to pull the upper hatch. Maybe I can train my dog to press his nose up against the buttons.

 

If the latch is operating with the two buttons in the cabin being pressed then the issue is not the latch. As I stated the switch supplies a momentary ground to the CJB to send the signal to the latch to open. The two buttons sends the same signal, so since that works we can rule out issues with the wiring from the CJB to the latch as well, so yes I would expect power to be there. At the connection to the switch check and see if you have continuity to ground on either of the two wires. One of them should have very little to no resistance to ground. If you do not then we will need to explore why. If you do then we know that side of the circuit is ok and we have to look at the wiring sending that ground signal to the CJB.

 

Any updates? Im going crazy over mine also. Now I didnt think of looking at the fuse. It unlocks with the pressing of the unlock/lock. Ive replaced the latch, actuator and now switch and its still dead. Going back in to look at the fuse which I feel isn’t it and double checking my splicing. Just want my tailgate to work. Then fixing my drivers door handle and after that the rear brakes. The list continues.

 

I found out it was the switch and my butt connectors were not crimped all the way. So I did the long route and pulled the tailgate handle off and soldered the connections. New switch, latch, actuator and now some spare parts from the used (original) parts. I would say check the switch, both my new and original actuator worked with the new switch.