Door Lock Cylinder Tricks?

Repaired and started to replace my driver's side door lock cylinder today, as the little spring weather seal had dislodged and blocked my ability to insert my key. The disassembly process went very smooth. the repair of the cylinder lock was fairly easy as well. However, my problems really began during the reassembly of the door lock. Does anyone have any tricks as to how to reassemble the little retainer that connects the cylinder to the lock linkage? I have an '88 2-door that does not allow hand access to the back of the lock cylinder. Any special or useful tools that I could use to assist my reassembly? Anyone come up with an alternative "field expedient" fix as an alternative to replacing the retainer clip?

A super long flathead screwdriver will help in popping the clip back on.

Ask me how I know........

The easiest way is to remove the other clips holding the other rods onto the latch, then reconnect them in order of hardest to easiest. The cylinder rod is the hardest. Really, it just takes way less time to start from zero on this.

I just recently had my doors apart to fix a couple window issues (no they are not power), as well as put my new speakers in.

The door lock on the drivers side of my 2 dr. ha been picky as of late. It's not anymore!! I had to replace the clip holding the rod to the cylinder. What a Biotch....

Anyway, thats how I know.....

Pop the rubber pluggs out . I take it that you already have the door panel off already . Reach up under the window inside the door and pop it back on the rod . It is a pain but not that bad . Good luck .

What rubber plugs? My door doesn't have any. I've removed the small plastic plate covering a small (too small for fingers) access hole above the actual lock plate.

Does anyone have a picture (or links to) representation of the inner door locking mechanisms? I can not see how the rods leading down from and connecting to the lock cylinder are assembled to allow reverse assembly. It doesn't help that I have a black XJ that provides a contrasting backdrop to the work area.

After two days, I'm ready to start drilling and cutting the door panel to allow hand access to the cylinder inside the door.

There are a couple of pictures in this post about fixing the lock cylinder on my beater

ehall said:

There are a couple of pictures in this post about fixing the lock cylinder on my beater

Click to expand...

Thanks for the pictures. As it seems like most projects go, as soon as reach my frustration saturation point, I revelation occurs and the job becomes a 10 minute process. I had just come in from putting everything back together when I saw your post.

By chance, do you have manual or power door locks? The spring clips used to secure the rod assemblies between the cylinder and latch are a bit different on your rig (I have power locks). I still have the passenger side to go. I was going to post the process here, but you have got most of the critical pictures. I may do it anyway, but yours would have certainly been a help, if I had found them earlier.

I have power locks. I know the clips changed a few times. The FSM for 91 showed them slightly different too.

What was your revelation, to unbolt the latch?

My revelation was simply getting the cam that attaches to the cylinder in a position to where I could see how it attached to the rod going to the latch. It had a spring clip that hooked over the rod similar to the yellow clip at the rod-to-latch connection point in your pictures. That made it easy to disassemble/reassemble the cam from the cylinder. Instead of two days, I should be able to do the passenger side replacement/repair in 2 hours.