Cleaning the door lock / latch

Flyer58

Flyer58

YJ Enthusiast
Joined
Apr 12, 2020
Messages
978
Location
Magnolia, Texas
Nothing special but today I had time to clean the door latch for the full doors I've been working on. The latch looked like a 32 year old chunk of coal with dried grease and dirt. Same goes for the window crank gear assembly. Now both work smooth and silk.

Obligatory picture:

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I did mine a month or so ago along with new interior and exterior door handles, and for some reason the lock mechanism now catches when I lock them with the key so I can’t unlock them without prying on the lock from the inside with a flat screwdriver. I can imagine I messed something up on one side, but BOTH sides do it! I gave up and took the doors off completely 🤣
 
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I was fitting the outside door handle and found the handle part seems to be loose (floppy) with no spring to help keep the flap handle flat. There is a coil spring on one end but it's not attached to anything so it just rotates. Maybe it's broken. Looking at some youtube videos I see others have a lever spring but mine still looks different. It has a similar little post but no spring. I didn't check the right door yet to see if they match.

If the door latch is installed and adjusted correctly the latch spring should keep the flap handle closed flat.

I also need to paint the handle. No idea what type of paint the previous owner used but the slightest amount of solvent washes it off.

Broken coil spring?

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No spring near the post

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TRevs said:
I did mine a month or so ago along with new interior and exterior door handles, and for some reason the lock mechanism now catches when I lock them with the key so I can’t unlock them without prying on the lock from the inside with a flat screwdriver. I can imagine I messed something up on one side, but BOTH sides do it! I gave up and took the doors off completely 🤣
Click to expand...
Reading some Amazon reviews one customer had this locking problem and said the locking rod needs to be unclipped and adjusted about 1/16 inch longer.
 
Flyer58 said:
Reading some Amazon reviews one customer had this locking problem and said the locking rod needs to be unclipped and adjusted about 1/16 inch longer.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the advice; I looked into it last night. The problem ended up being the latch release rods, not the locking rods. I had never connected the inner lock rod, and the outer lock rod has a lot of play and is not threaded-adjustable anyway.

I ended up unclipping the rods from both the inner and outer releases, let everything go to their resting positions, then popping the threaded rods back in. Works great now!

IMG_3093.jpeg


The lower/outer rod is now sitting significantly lower than before.
 
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