Stuck door

[Warren]

I have had 3 parts cars with P.I.A. doors either locked or otherwise internally jammed. Since my patience is at a premium I thought I'd ask.

The lock lever jiggles up and down but does not seem to be hooking up as the door pull does about the same.

My final idea is a very narrow chisel forced over the latch on the door jamb,
but to do so involves getting in the rats nest that was under the sets. Shop vac is on the Fritz.

The one door I could get free took the effort of a 60lb pull with just the rusty hinge.

Everything has gotten liberal WD40 as that is what I had.

I have broken more than one dovetail with my impatience any ideas?
They really break quite easily and can't stand much prying.

 

[cobrakidz]

You lost me at "jiggles up and down".
I am assuming the door panel is off and you can see the latch? Can you give it a liberal dose of WD40 and try and move the levers? Only idea I have now.

 

[Warren]

Actuating lever

Move up and down but do not seem to be moving the infernal guts of the mechanism.

No door panel eaten by the elements or the rats.

Rats what a pain. best tried while not baking in the sun.

 

[XTIGERX]

Move up and down but do not seem to be moving the infernal guts of the mechanism.

Sounds like what I had the same problem with about 10 years back. There is a trapezoidal plate which the interior door and lock mech attach to. There is a thin stamped sheet metal "cap / dish" attached to face of trapezoidal plate sliding over the interior door handle post. The thin sheet metal "cap" would flex making the latch not withdraw far enough to allow door to open.

Does that sound like your problem? Hard to explain but would be happy to point it out.

I had a friend that believed if it don't fit force it. Door didn't open to get out so he gave it the shoulder and broke passenger side dovetail.

 

[XTIGERX]

This is the area I was trying to describe in my earlier revised post.

 

[Warren]

Thanks

I will look at the front handle part but I think my problem is aft in the striker / latch mechanism.

My car came to me with one dove tail missing, and all 3 rollers/drag on the ground cars have had at least 1 stuck door.

I have been like your buddy and gone shoulder to shoulder so to speak with the door. The dovetail lost and so did I cause a good part was lost but the door opened.

Justin Thanks for taking the time to respond.

 

[XTIGERX]

I will look at the front handle part but I think my problem is aft in the striker / latch mechanism.

Well the solution to my problem wasn't obvious and took some time to trace it back to that location. The problem as you describe it sounds identical. You might want to humor me and maybe save yourself some time by checking out that stamped sheet metal piece for deflection while operating the interior door handle mechanism. You won't find anything at the latch end that can be adjusted.

IIRC that stamped sheet metal part holds the inner working together and against the main trapezoidal plate. Over the years the door levers have been used thousands of times with the interior workings pushing against that stamped part and has weakened it. It flexes just enough and seems to get magnified on the latch end. You're probably thinking that if you could just get the latch to retract another 0.10" the latch would clear and work.

Herb Mosley wanted to do a tech tip on this but my computer went down after practically finalizing the article and I lost the pics and all except for a couple of CADD drawings I managed to re-cover off the hard drive. I lost interest in doing it all over again.