[Justin Ryan Emery]

A while ago I posted a forum topic about my door having problems latching. staying closed and opening. It was determined at that time that it was dirty and when I cleaned the handle out using a WD-40 type lubricant and/or PB Blaster. This worked pretty well for a while. This year the door go stuck shut. Being around the time I was talking about dumping the Tracker I stopped caring really. Now that the Tracker is being kept again I am working on the issue.

First here is a picture of the handle. This image shows the position it is in when the door is closed.


When the handle is pulled to open this is what it looks like but in my case it gets stuck like this. I will get into that more later...for now just know that this is part of the problem. My mom's as well as my wives does this also sometimes.


Now here is a picture of the part that holds the bar to keep the door closed but this is what it looks like when the door is open. Note the grease will be explained later.


This shot is the same thing but I forced it to trip with a screw driver so it would show what it is supposed look like when its closed


Here you see the black part(the internal part of the handle shown earlier) which pushes down on the metal bar there which causes the door to open


This one shows the parts that are involved in the locking of the door in the unlocked position


This shows the same part in the locked position. Notice how it is slid at an angle. From what I have figured out it slants which makes it miss the little metal part there and that causes the door to be released and you can pull it open.


This image shows you what I was trying to describe. When the metal bar pushed that plat metal piece down it hits that other metal piece and walla the door opens


Ok back to the story... So the Door was stuck shut and I was not able to do anything to get it open. So I decided I had to work from the inside out. I ripped the internal panel off and looked. The best I could tell was when you pull the handle that black piece seen in the 5th picture would push down on the pole you see and that would cause the door to be aloud to be open. First thing I did was lube it with PB Blaster. This aloud the door to open once and then stuck again. So I waited to couple days and tried again today. Instead this time I started with brake parts cleaner. I sprayed this on everything which made all the dirt and stuff pretty much wash away. I hit the lock and unlock buttons a few times and it opened. Now I had the door open again and spray lithium grease to lubricate it. Now I got it to the point where it would let me open it and close it. Now only one problem remains.

When I close the door the door it closes but I have to push the handle from the open position to the closed position or the door flies open due to it not being latched properly. Once the handle is pushed to the position I showed in the above pictures (#2) it latches fine.

So here are my thoughts... When you close the door the tripping of that "bar grabber" (see picture #3 and #4) is should push the handle back to the closed position. But it’s not doing that...Why? I was going to tear the whole thing out but I couldn't get one of the screws to come loose so I gave up for now. I think I am going to go to a junk yard and see if I can find a door that works see if there is a way to take the stuff out of the door and transplant into my door.

What are you thoughts on this Matter?

This post has been edited by Justin Ryan Emery: 01 November 2009 - 01:48 AM

[wayne]

First, looks like there's a tab broken on the handle - on the right side. Second, what's all the white soapy stuff? Third, that door looks really banged up, ouch.

Handle $36.38
Lock w/o Power lock $67.54
License plate panel $57.35

www.allchevyparts.net They are roughly the same price as www.gmpartsdirect.com, a dollar or ten more sometimes, but they're shipping is much more reasonable.

[Justin Ryan Emery]

Tab on handle? Which picture
White Stuff is lithum grease
Its not banged...just filty...the othe dents in it are on the outside where the door opened to far once

I am going to check the junk yard. The License panel is actually is good shape on the outside...I am going to take it all apart and see what the inside shows me.

[wayne]

Justin Ryan Emery, on Oct 31 2009, 07:39 PM, said:

Tab on handle? Which picture
White Stuff is lithum grease
Its not banged...just filty...the othe dents in it are on the outside where the door opened to far once

I am going to check the junk yard. The License panel is actually is good shape on the outside...I am going to take it all apart and see what the inside shows me.

Hmm.. guess its not a broken tab, the handle is just on an odd angle. Never noticed that before.

[Justin Ryan Emery]

Dude trust me I am open to suggestions. I think it is going to have to be replaced...I want to check a Tracker in the junk yard. I think something had to have happened inside that is not pushing the handle back. I have other issues to work on also but I think I want to fix this first. I may just take the whole part out of the tracker I find if it works right and put it in mine. Its separate from the lock so it should be fine...

[wayne]

Justin Ryan Emery, on Oct 31 2009, 08:18 PM, said:

Dude trust me I am open to suggestions. I think it is going to have to be replaced...I want to check a Tracker in the junk yard. I think something had to have happened inside that is not pushing the handle back. I have other issues to work on also but I think I want to fix this first. I may just take the whole part out of the tracker I find if it works right and put it in mine. Its separate from the lock so it should be fine...

Its cheap enough, I'd just replace the entire lock assembly. $68+shp isn't bad. Junk yard will prolly charge close to that and it'll be used. I'd rather pay a little more and get factory new.

[Justin Ryan Emery]

I may end up doing that in the long run but if I chekc the part at the junk yard and it works...because of my connections I would get the part for free...so try that first...and if it works...go with it? but anyway...do you think something broke inside?

So when you giving me those 15's you have for your project tracke? haha

[wayne]

Justin Ryan Emery, on Oct 31 2009, 08:38 PM, said:

I may end up doing that in the long run but if I chekc the part at the junk yard and it works...because of my connections I would get the part for free...so try that first...and if it works...go with it? but anyway...do you think something broke inside?

So when you giving me those 15's you have for your project tracke? haha

Free is usually good. Heh...

Don't have any 15's for the project. Got some 16's tho.

[Justin Ryan Emery]

Thats right...16's. wanna mail them to me:)

I will hopefully get to the junk yard on tuesday. I want to get the latch stuff and maybe the handle. Gonna look see what else I can find. Looking for anything...

[Justin Ryan Emery]

Woot...seems to be working just fine now. I haven't replaced the parts yet and it seems to be working pretty well. I still plan on getting to the Junk yard for the parts but some time this week.