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door latch replace -- LONG
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Posted by sndgeek [Email] (more from sndgeek) on Tue, 22 Feb 2005 11:15:56 Share Post by Email
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hey everyone, thought i'd post this problem that happened to me yesterday.

so i go down to the garage in the morning, hit the remote unlock, open the driver's door to get in. I sit down, get comfy, and go to close the door. The door bounces back.

okay...check around the edges for seatbelts, dirt, debris etc. nothing. try to close the door again--the latch doesn't engage. Great. Whip out the Haynes manual, start pulling apart the inner door. (Expect the inner membrane to disintegrate on you.) Asia had an earlier post remarking that whoever put these doors together had infant's hands--I must agree.

It's nearly impossible to see the latch mechanism when it's inside the door. If you've never taken one apart or looked at a spare, this makes it very difficult to feel your way around. The latch is also in a plastic housing, so you're not going to find out if it's broken until you remove it anyway.

At this point I put a call in to Walter Wong; he says to bring it down and let him look. Fine; I break out the rope and lash the door to the driver's headrest. 40 minutes later, he takes 5 minutes to tell me that the latch needs replacing. The only place to get used parts in LA (besides the dealer--not happening) is Elite Foreign Auto in Sun Valley, an hour's drive. I rope myself back into the car, watching the day slip away. Finally get the latch mechanism and head home to do the replacement.

The Haynes manual is very helpful in taking you through the removal process. There are two obvious wires protruding from the door--one for the inner handle and one for the lock/unlock tab. Each of these wires are held in by plastic clips, which just need the right leverage to pop them out. HOWEVER--they failed to mention the third and fourth guide wires, one of which i nearly destroyed. One simply sits in the top of the latch, but the other is clipped into a guide tucked neatly away behind the latch, making it exceptionally difficult to get at. I have a feeling it has to do with the deadbolt.

They also reccommend removing the glass guide bolt and swinging the glass guide up to allow better access to the latch. This proved impossible for me--the inner nut is a square self-locking type, recessed in the paneling so your chance of getting a wrench on it is slim. I finally gave up and just undid the two nuts for the crossbracing, which thankfully pushes inward and rotates to allow just enough access to slide the latch out.

Now the easy part--installing the new one. Right? Well...getting the latch into the right place wasn't that difficult. Getting the wires back into their plastic clips requires an unusual amount of dexterity and guess-and-check. I used the old latch to practice putting the wires in, then did the new one by feel, then checked the work with a handy dentists' mirror and a flashlight. The clips like to rotate on their mounts and hide from your prying fingers, but a persistent small flat head screwdriver will coax it out.

And that's it! Check the mechanism for functionality--pull the tab up and down, try both handles, turn the key all the way to deadbolt, etc. Success! I will try and diagnose the old latch tonight.

As an aside, it is amazing how much of a seal the latch creates against the door. I didn't realize how much pressure the latch endures on a daily basis. Nice to have my door back.

posted by 66.77.10...
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