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Anybody have to slice up a door to get it open?

old_man

old_man

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Loveland, Colorado
The lock mechanism in my door decided to go bat shit. No matter what I do, I can't get it to unlock and open.

I pulled the inside of the door and can operate the control rods and the lock rod will not move far enough to unlock. I disco'd the lock rods and it is definitely the mechanism.

Looks like a am going to replace the door. As soon as I get a replacement, I will be taking a cutting wheel and cutting the door into tiny pieces. I think I am going to make me a large margarita and have some fun.
 
I did not have to cut anything, but it did take a lot of penetrating oil after partially dismantling the door.
 
I had the thing out a couple of weeks ago when tore the door down and painted it and replaced the door handles. I cleaned and lubed everything.

This thing has me pissed off. I pretty much have said screw ColoradoFest. Nothing is going right and at this rate, I simply won't be ready.
 
I have tried everything. I am looking for a replacement door. The only good thing is that I just painted the whole rig and have plenty of matching paint.
 
old_man said:
I have tried everything. I am looking for a replacement door. The only good thing is that I just painted the whole rig and have plenty of matching paint.
Click to expand...

Had my doors off when I gutted them but I would think you could remove the few screws that hold the door cover on and peel away the cover behind that and get it open ...lol...but It may be more easier on your body to just get a new door it may be like the twisting act I did to get into the passenger footwell to pull the junction box for my sides...lol...one more nice thing about that mod is the junction box will go back in a place that anyone more than 100lbs can reach the panel without a swear jar .
 
I pulled off the inner skin, I disco'd the rods to both the inside and outside controls. I am unable to get the lock/unlock lever on the locking mechanism to cycle far enough to unlock and allow the open lever to connect internally and open the door.

There are two problems. You can't get to all three screws that hold the lock mechanism in the door (they are in the closed door jam) and even if you could loosen the locking mechanism from the door, it is clamped around the striker and won't release.

I am going to pull the passenger door apart and pull the locking mechanism and see if there is a way to override the mechanism somehow with the lock still in the door. The two mechanisms are mirror images of each other.

I had a similar problem on the passenger door, but I could get it open. It turns out the plastic clips that hold the rods had deteriorated and a piece of plastic fell down into the mechanism.
 
I had a similar problem on a back door. Latch froze up solid. I removed the inner plastic panel, removed the rods and tried to operate it (which is when I discovered it was froze).

I finally got desparate, drilled a couple of 3/8" holes large enough for a decent sized straight blade... Got out a BFH and proceeded to pound the crap out of the latch until the Biatch broke up and let go.

Good luck Tom!
 
Hypoid gave me a replacement door minus the glass and I pulled the locking mechanism out of it. After cleaning it up, I took a close look at it and figured out that there is a tiny "lever" that will release the door regardless of the lock position. It took a hell of a press on it but the door finally popped open. I had to press so hard that I bruised my fingers. I was able to use the "new" lock mechanism and get it back working without having to do any cutting or painting the new door.
 
WB9YZU said:
What's this "Weld" thing you speak of? Real Rednecks use duct tape :)

Additional aid may be required to do a "Dukes of Hazzard" entry into your average XJ window. I'm not even sure how they did it on a Road Runner!
Click to expand...

They didn't. They did it on a Charger. :shhh:
 
old_man said:
After cleaning it up, I took a close look at it and figured out that there is a tiny "lever" that will release the door regardless of the lock position. It took a hell of a press on it but the door finally popped open.
Click to expand...
Did you happen to take any pictures of that "tiny lever?"
 
You won't believe what happened. I went to the Pull & Pay today and when I came out, the drivers door was jammed again. This is with a different lock. WTF?????? I took the replacement lock and washed it out with gasoline to get all the old grease and crud out before installing. I then liberally sprayed the mechanism down with white lithium grease.

Anybody ever seen this before?
 
Having ruled everything else out, I think I figured out what is happening. I shimmed the door to get the body lines to align. I think that the knob on the end of the striker must be rubbing on the jaws of the latch and causing it to hang up.

I am going to pull everything apart and see if I can see the wear marks. I will either remove the washer or add another.

Hopefully tomorrow I can post a pix of the locking mechanism for those who may run into this problem in the future.
 
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