Thanks for the help.
The cylinder that I was referring to is just the button that you press in on the lock, minus the key slot.

I have seen funola's thread, and I think I might try that later today. Because of my experience with it before, I was thinking that it probably wasn't a vacuum problem. It started out ocassionally not opening, but after a couple of minutes it would open. Could a vacuum issue account for that? I have tried to read up on the vacuum lock system, but I still do not quite understand how it works or how it would explain this problem. I was hoping that the release cable would account for a vacuum lock failure and release the trunk, but that strategy has been unsuccessful.

Jordan G - where did you plug the vac lock at?

Thanks again for the help