unsticking a stuck door (long)

["Walter Coe" <Whalt@xxxx>]

A local friend had his driver's door stick closed, so he called me over to
help find the problem. He had the OEM door lock module still connected, and
unlocking the door with the key make it snap back to the lock position. We
disconnected the module and later determined that the module was working
fine and probably not a factor in the problem.

The next step was to take the door panel off. The upper panel came off
easily despite the cramped space of having the door closed. Having the
window down helped a lot, and I pulled most of the fir trees loose using
only my fingers while standing outside the car. The lower panel was easy,
too once I figured out what needed to come apart. Ordinarily with the door
open, the panel can come straight off. But with the dash knee pad/vent duct
in the way this isn't possible. The procedure that worked for me was as
follows: I loosened all the fir trees using just my fingers and removed the
obvious screws that needed to come out. Then I removed the grab handle by
removing the two screws that are accessible from over the top of the panel
while flexing an obstructing rod to the side. (Don't try removing the other
two screws that hold the sides of the handle fore & aft. People have done
it this way, but it is not the preferred method.) Reaching the forward
screw was a problem because the side mirror control switch was snapped
directly into the metal bracket. Luckily DMC provided some little slots to
compress the plastic tabs to free it. Y'all correct me if I'm wrong, but
isn't the switch supposed to mount in the plastic escutcheon and not the
metal bracket? Once the grab handle was loose, I was able to turn it a
little and have it come straight out. Now the only thing stopping the panel
from coming out was the metal bracket that holds the interior door
latch/handle & door lock rocker switch. Removing two screws hidden
underneath it freed it up enough so that it could move backwards making
enough room for the front of the lower door panel to clear and come out.

Now with the whole interior of the door accessible, I thought that whatever
was sticking the door would be obvious to see, but it wasn't. We were sure
that the door wasn't jammed on the striker pins because the door has striker
pin guides installed and the door closed properly & easily the last time and
looked properly aligned. All the symptoms indicated that the door was still
locked. We took the lock/unlock rods loose from the solenoid and was able
to unlock & unlatch the front latch, but the rear latch wouldn't budge. It
just wouldn't unlock. To make a long story a little shorter, we finally
discovered that the latches will not unlock if there is any tension on the
unlatch rods. Disconnecting this from the bell crank relieved the tension
on it and allowed us to unlock & open the door.

We think that age & use allowed things to shift enough to get it out of
tolerance. The fix was to readjust the length of the rear unlatch rod so
that there would be no tension left on it while the door handles were
relaxed. This brings another interesting point: In a previous post
recently DMC Joe explained that he found it advantageous to remove the
lock/unlock rod on the front latch to disable it from locking. Having only
the rear latch to lock is enough to keep anyone from opening the door when
locked. This doesn't stop the front latch from latching; it only stops the
latch from obeying signals from the door handles when locked. I found that
the lock/unlock rod isn't really the problem, but removing it solves a
different problem: The length of the unlatch rod connecting the front latch
to the bell crank is not adjustable. Because of this there is sometimes a
slight tension still on the rod when the door handles are relaxed. This
tension stops the latch from unlocking. Thus, removing the lock/unlock rod
and leaving the latch always unlocked solves the problem. An ideal fix
would be to lengthen the unlatch rod (which would require some
re-engineering) or to slot the 3 mounting holes for the bell crank and move
it forward (I haven't tried this, so I can't vouch that it would work.) A
related factor is the adjustment of the exterior door handle. If it is
adjusted too tight then it leaves tension on the unlatch rod which stops it
from unlocking. If it is too loose then it doesn't rotate the bell crank
far enough to open the door. If on any particular door adjusting to correct
one problem makes the other worse, then as DMC Joe said earlier, removing
the lock/unlock rod is a simple and effective fix.

Walt Tampa, FL