Doors won't latch

[jangell]

While waiting for my exhaust so I can get my EFI conversion on the road, I've been cleaning up the relay compartment and some of the mods I added (and a new fuse box, and removing old relays while I added new ones for EFI, etc). When I turned the key today, I heard the DeLorean Parts NW door launcher actuators fire. It happened every time I turned the key to accessory. I quickly found that the wire to the actuator relays had come loose and was shorting against the metal tray. It was a simple fix.

The problem now is that neither door will latch when I close it. If I push the remote buttons to fire the actuators, I can hear them engage and then release when I release the button, and I can see the interior door handle shift at the same time, so I think the rod is resetting properly. The latches appear to be pointing the right way, with the "fingers" aiming down so that the pin will fit between them when the door closes. The latch just won't engage and actually hold the doors closed. If not for the overly tight weather seals, the doors would be springing open again; as it stands, I can open the doors just by lightly pushing up on the mirror. I'm sure they'd bounce right open if I tried to drive the car.

It's about 30 degrees here, but cold weather shouldn't affect the latches (it hasn't before). I don't really want to take the doors apart to diagnose this, but it's starting to look like I might have to. It seems odd that it's affecting both doors at the same time. Has anyone seen this kind of thing before?

On a somewhat related note, it seems the door lock buttons on the remote are flashing the marker lights properly, but are firing the door launcher relays instead of the door lock relays. The instructions I found for the keyless entry module don't seem to match my unit (a ~10 pin connector with colored striped wires, plus a two pin connector with black and white wires; the instructions mention a separate 3 pin connector for the locks that isn't on mine), which makes it hard to tell what is going wrong here. Does anyone happen to have alternate instructions?

Thanks!

-- Joe

[David T]

Disconnect all of the electronics and get the doors to work manually. Be sure both front and rear latches on both doors are completely unlocked AND unlatched when open. You can use a screwdriver to check the latches. The electronics won't (can't) work properly if the doors won't work mechanically well first.

[jangell]

The electronics are not active, but I'll disconnect them to be sure in the morning. I'm actually not trying to do anything with the electronics at the moment -- I'm just trying to get the doors to work manually.

I guess my question would be how to ensure that the latches are working as intended? It seems I will have to take the door apart to make sure the rods are working properly, as since the latches are pointing angled correctly. I was able to easily turn the latches with a screwdriver, so I know they're pointing as they should -- I just don't know why they won't engage and secure the door when closed.

Thanks

-- Joe

[David T]

The electronics are not active, but I'll disconnect them to be sure in the morning. I'm actually not trying to do anything with the electronics at the moment -- I'm just trying to get the doors to work manually.

I guess my question would be how to ensure that the latches are working as intended? It seems I will have to take the door apart to make sure the rods are working properly, as since the latches are pointing angled correctly. I was able to easily turn the latches with a screwdriver, so I know they're pointing as they should -- I just don't know why they won't engage and secure the door when closed.

Thanks

-- Joe

If the latches won't latch it could be adjustments are not right or it could be the old grease has gotten so dirty and sticky that they won't work right. Especially in the cold. Maybe the the way to go would be to remove the latches from the doors, clean, regrease, and reinstall going over all of the adjustments.

[jangell]

I was going to take off the top of the door panels this morning and look at the latch rods (it's been a while since I've done this, but I think the rods are accessible after removing just the top panel?), but it seems I overlooked some other electrical problems from my fuse box swap, notably that the power windows aren't working (turns out the socket for the fuse had popped out of the fuse box; I had the center arm rest and the switches there out, so I hadn't tested them yet), so I spent the morning chasing that down instead. At this point I'll have to look at it next weekend.

I haven't removed the latches from the doors before; I've only had the trim panels off so that I could adjust the rods, install the launchers and replace the solenoids with actuators (about a decade ago). It seems straight forward enough, according to the workshop manual, although I guess I have to remove the lower trip panel for that. it's not so much getting it out as getting that grab handle screwed back in that I'm trying to avoid, but oh well, I guess it has to be done. I'll report back with how it went next week, after I get the windows down so I can pop off the to top trim panel and see if any of the rods are stuck in there.

I did notice that the latches seemed to rotate easily with a screwdriver, with very little resistance, but that they wouldn't lock into place if I pushed them into what should have been the latched position -- I could easily rotate them again with a screwdriver both ways, without pulling the handle.

Thanks again

-- Joe

[jangell]

Ok, I figured out what is going on here, sort of.

It seems that when the actuators released, they weren't sprinting back all the way. The solution to this with the door trim still in the car was contrived: manually latch the doors with a. Screwdriver while the door is open, then lock the doors, and then loaded bit inside the latch that actually keeps the doors latched works again. (I may have the sequence slightly wrong, but that's the basic idea).

After taking off the top door trim, I could see that the actuator was pulling the door handle rod back, but that it wasn't moving forward all the way again once the button was released. It seems like sometimes pulling the door handles while in this state would fix it, and sometimes not. However, opening the doors manually with the handles worked 100% of the time every time, properly returning the latches.

Maybe I just need to put a bigger spring on there, or build my own keyless module that will run the actuators backwards after unlatching to ensure that they are in the proper rest position (I've been wanting to build my own anyway, but I still have more work to do before I get to that). Since I'm having issues with the keyless module not locking/unlocking the doors anyway, I'm just going to disconnect it and go back to the manual approach for a while.

-- Joe