Door Won't Shut

[jrandle]

Good morning everyone, back with another issue.

I was in the passenger side door a couple weeks ago putting the window back on the track and adjusting its alignment.

After putting the door back together, the door would not latch.

I made some quick adjustments as to a rod that was binding against the black bracket containing the release latch and it seemed to be working alright.

For a bit there, the door could be opened from the outside, but you would need to actuate the interior latch to reset the door latches and allow the door to latch shut.

Now, the workaround is starting to fail and I'm not sure what may be wrong.

Could it be that i knocked the linkage rods out of proper adjustment while working on the window?

Any help is appreciated!

[Jonathan]

You're right, it might have been a rod that got knocked out of its notch or alignment.

One way to troubleshoot might be to compare it to the drivers side. If you can get the same trim panels off, have a look at the drivers side and see if you can figure out what doesn't look the same from side to side (mirror image of course, keep that in mind). They should be symmetrical and other than a couple minor differences (mirror switch, for example) what you see on one door should be very similar on the other. Just a way to help yourself as this can be a bit tricky on the forum to troubleshoot without any photos or video.

Have a look at your latches on the passenger door too. It might not be that a rod got out of place, but it could be something only on one side that got sticky or gummed up coincidentally. It's not uncommon to need to clean the latches from time to time.

[David T]

Unless you really know what you are doing you should not adjust anything "out of sequence". To do it properly you have to do the whole procedure. Even before attempting adjustments everything should be cleaned and lubricated so it all works smoothly. The latches won't work well with 30 year old stiff grease in them!