sticky door handle/hood latch

ok guys if u havent guessed i bought a xj resently and workin on a little bit of everything and geting nothin done my doors are hard to open from the outside i think the latches are gummed any idea on how to clean em or what the problem could be also you have to pull pretty hard on the hood release to get it to unlatch any suggestions

Use throttle body cleaner on the lock cylinders and the latch mechanisms. Clean out all the old lubricant and dirt. Use a light oil to lubricate the lock and latch until they work smoothly. Re-apply every spring and fall. Use a penetrating oil like PB Blaster or a Cleaner Lubricant like CLP gun oil. Clean and lube the hood latches and lube the hood latch cable also. WD-40 is neither a cleaner, nor a suitable lubricant.

To be honest with you Tim, I don't think PB Blast is anything more than Kerosene. I wouldn't consider it a lubricant because once it evaporates, there is nothing left behind.

I would clean with the PB Blast because it is non-corrosive with Plastics/Paint.

I never lubricate locks with anything heavy, always keep that lube light. CRC 3-36 seems to work well for locks.

I have some ATF in a old Workman oiler that I use on door hinges and latches, and clean us drips immediately.

WD-40 is Kerosene in a spray can. It dries out quickly and leave a gummy residue.

PB Blaster penetrating oil will work, but I prefer Break Free CLP because it actually cleans and lubricates. Break Free CLP is a firearms cleaner and lubricant product ( CLP ) that is used by the US military and all their small arms and by many civilian firearms owners.

Can you see any waxy build-up on the latch? If you do, then that has to be removed before the parts will work smoothly. The wax is what's left after petroleum oil dries. Very hard to get that off without removing the whole latch from the door and soaking it all in mineral spirits or xylene or another petroleum based solvent.

If the latch is just dirty or dry, then brake cleaner will work well to get rid of basic grime and dirt.

The best lubricant I have found for latches and hinges is white lithium grease. It goes on liquid then sets into a paste. It penetrates well, lasts a good amount of time, and doesn't set into wax. If you ever pull the door panel off, spray all of the joints and moving parts with that stuff.

yea its pretty gummy like dried nasty grease and i figured it would be a pain to get out but as far as wd-40 goes you cant tell old heads no different but i dont ever use it dont even own it im found of pb blaster as a penatrate and white litheum spay to and very fond of clp gun cleaner as guns are my main hobby but i never thought of using it on a car

I've had trouble with hood latches too, and it's usually not the cable but the part of the latch assembly that's riveted to the hood. It's hard to reach, and hard to get lube to stay on, but the best solution I've found is, once again, to drench it with lube. Try a penetrating lube first, and then something a little thicker, and then exercise the latch back and forth, either with the cable or at the latch end if it's too stiff to pull the cable back. If you get lube on it and then cycle it 50 times or so, it will probably stay free for a good while.

The door handles do not operate directly from the push button, but through a lever that the button pushes on. That can get stiff and rusty, and eventually bend or break. When it bends, it gets even harder to get the doors open, and when it breaks, of course, it's a goner. Again, a really good drenching with lube can help, but you may have to take the door panels off to get good access. Taking the handle off can help, but it's very common to shear off the studs on the handle when you do this, so unless you're equipped to grind them off, and drill and tap the handles, try to avoid this option as long as possible. The studs are threaded into a brass insert in the plastic handle. You can drill them out and retap them, but you must be very patient doing this, because if you heat the insert up too much, it will melt out of the handle and that's the end of the handle. I've had good luck retapping handles with plain 1/4 x 20 threads, and using a regular hex bolt to reattach them.