Help!Door stuck

[TTait]

Usually my assistants find other things to do - but we'll try that tonight!

T

[TTait]

Sadly that did not work. Tried from inside the car with my wife pushing from outside, then later I worked the rods from outside while I pushed in with my hip and one foot on the garage wall. I'd guess I put about 100# of force on it - but no luck. The release rod does not move in or out.

Again - the locking rod actuates well - but I'm not sure if my release rod is jammed at extended or retracted, or in the middle. Two pix attached, one of the latch locked and one with the latch set to unlock, in case that leads to any more observations.

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I'm thinking I can try to get some white lithium grease onto/in the lock inside the door and maybe some around the pin, and tap the housing with a dowel and mallet - but if pushing on the door did not work I'm betting this would have little effect.

Any other advice?

Tom

[TTait]

So I got my phone in there and played for a while and finally saw what was going on. The release rod attaches to a white nylon lever, and that lever pushes on a tab on another nylon component which I'll call the latch release plate. My lever had pulled past the tab on the latch release plate and jammed.

As luck would have it this latch/lock unit has a number of arms that come off the release plate. When picturing this understand that the release plate is basically parallel to the water pump pulley or the AC compressor pulley and rotates around its center much as either of these pulleys do. (Does that make sense?) When the release plate is rotated about 15 degrees with the top of the plate rotating toward the outside of the door, the latch (if unlocked) releases and the door pops open.

I tried for quite a while to fish a spare linkage rod into one of the other release levers on the lock, but that proved difficult. In the end I jammed my left hand into the door and found I could reach the latch itself. There is a arm off the release plate that is close to straight up, on top of the latch. I got a finger on that and pushed the arm toward the outside of the car and the door popped open.

A word of caution here. There are lots of sharp edges in the door and by the time you have both panels removed etc. it can leap up a bit when released. Be careful and make sure you don't hurt yourself if the door pops open - likely you hand will be wedged in there pretty good and there is some potential to get hurt.

I removed the lock and was able to get the lever behind the tab again - but I don't think I'm going to trust it. there may be a small tear in the nylon or something that let it get past the tab - or maybe I pulled the release bar hard enough to pop it over? At this point I'll spend the $35 for a new one. Friends love getting a ride in the car - so far I have never had to ask one to crawl across the center console to get out though.

One other tip - it is a lot easier to figure out what is going on with your latches if you keep your old ones after a swap. I was able to sit in the car and cogitate on what was going on and look at the latch in my hand for reference. Its hard to see in there and even with a camera its not easy. Save at least a pair of your latches when you replace all 4.

Thanks for the advice guys.

Tom