Author Topic: Key will unlock door but not lock...  (Read 5956 times)

alpina

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Key will unlock door but not lock...
« on: October 28, 2015, 10:10:48 »
I have a problem that I need some advice on. The passenger side door lock. I cannot lock the door from the outside with the
Key.
The door will lock from the inside by moving the door lock lever on the interior door panel.  The door can be unlocked from
The outside with the key.  Turning the key you can feel the key moving the lever to unlock the door, much more than on the driver’s side
I put this down to more wear through usage.
The car was painted last year so everything on the doors has been removed and replaced. Would something have gone a miss on the
Refitting?
I don’t fully understand why turning the key one way will unlock the door, but turn it back in the opposite direction does not look the door.
Can anyone explain how the door lock works, before I start taking things apart and getting into something beyond what I should be doing.
And regretting I ever started.  All advice welcome.

Thanks 

Darren

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Re: Key will unlock door but not lock...
« Reply #1 on: October 30, 2015, 21:21:28 »
Hello Darren,

Several things can occur here.

1) Try to spray WD-40 into the push button/tumbler door for the key.
Let it soak and try to turn the key CW and CCW carefully several time.
Mostly that already does the job.

2) If that doesn't work,
roll down your passenger side window and look through the window's gap into the door where the door handle is.
Soak that area with a WD-40 can with its long nozzle as well.

3) If that also doesn't help, you need to remove the door panel (see the Wiki or do a search here) in order to gain access to the area where the door handle push rocker switch engages the inner parts of the door lock. Does that attach properly in both directions (CW and CCW), is there anything blocked?
Remove the door lock in the door (not the handle but the locking mechanism itself) with the three large Phillips screws
and see whether everything works and turns freely.

4) Sometimes you need to take the door handle of and dissassemble it.
A good cleaning and careful greasing will do the job.
Look out whether something is broken.

5) You can adjust the protruding length of the rocker switch with its internal slotted screw. Soak these parts with WD-40 properly before. Otherwise the adjustment screw might not turn.

The pics show two sedan door handles where the push rocker switches are shorter. Those can be interchanged.

Good luck,

Achim
(doorlockcollector)
Achim
(Germany)

TJMart

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Re: Key will unlock door but not lock...
« Reply #2 on: November 01, 2015, 15:02:06 »
I copied and pasted my post from a couple of months ago. This may also be your problem. When my car was painted the door striker was not replaced properly that caused my problem. Good Luck!

Tony

My passenger side door lock is not working properly.

With the door closed: I cannot lock the door from the inside of the car using the "lock latch". (for lack of a better name)
                              I cannot lock or unlock the door with the key either.

With the door open, I can lock the inside "lock latch" and close the door and it remains locked when I close the door. With the door now closed I can unlock the door with the key but I cannot lock it again with the key. (I have not opened the door).

                 


   

Don't know if this is proper etiquette but I resolved my problem and wanted to share in case someone else encounters the same problem. The door latch actually has two positions. With the door open you can rotate the latch clockwise and the latch stops after one click (Position 1). If you rotate the latch once more the latch will click and stop again (Position 2). The door latch has to latch into position 2 when it closes against the striker on the inside of the door jam. My striker was adjusted (when I had it painted I assume) only far enough to close the latch into position 1. This is what caused my problem. Once I adjusted the striker so that the latch was in position 2 when the door closed everything works like it is supposed to. Hopefully I explained it and did not cause further confusion!
Tony
1970 280SL, 4 Speed