Door issue

I noticed today that the latch at the bottom of the passenger side rear most door isnt in its slot. The rod just dangles inside the door. Is there an easy way to get it back into the little passage that lets it pop out and secure the door?

When I say easy Im hoping I wont have to take apart the handle and mechanism and all that....

JC, Post a few pic's so we can get a better idea what your dealing with. In 90% of the cases it can be fairly easily fixed. Pic's help us all give you better advice on how to proceed.

Dan

I think there is a like a guide at the door bottom that is either broken loose or rusted apart. Maybe one of the guys has a pic of it , I have the same issue on a couple doors on my project vans that I will have to deal with.

Alright here are some pictures:


Bottom of the door where the latch should be sticking out.


The latch on the the end of the rod thats turned sideways so the door still works without it in the slot.


Stuck my camera inside the door and took a picture of the rod hanging next to the slot on the inside.


Moved the rod and latch out of the way to get a better shot of the slot itself.

I spent quite a bit of time earlier with my arm inside the little square of the door trying to swing the rod over the slot and then trying to turn the latch back to its vertical position. But I ran into some problems. Although I can fit my arm in up to the elbow it isnt far enough down to actually get my hand around the end piece that I need to turn. Because of that I was trying to get something in the bottom of the door to grab it, like my pinky or a coat hanger, but that didnt work. The other problem I had was that the only way to postition the rod and latch over the rim of the slot was to twist the handle as far as it would go to get the height needed. Since the handle springs back a bit if I dont hold it in place it became very difficult for me to be doing so many things at once, especially since doing all that made everything just a bit too far apart from each other for my arms.

So is there an easier way? Or am I doing it right and just need a third arm?

One of the doors on mine I cured the floppy end by taking the rod out and welding it so it's rigid and bent the rod a bit to make it line up okay. it must work on a bit of an angle or it wouldnt have a knee in it Id think.

Floppy? You mean the bit that's turned sideways in my pictures?

I dont have a problem with it being floppy. If anything its too hard to turn. I think if it turned easier I might have got it in the slot when I had my arm in the door earlier.

I was hoping I wouldnt have to bend the rod.... do you think that's the best way to do it though? Im worried I would mess it up.

What I was running into was , when I unlatched the doors and it lifted that latch wedge , it would kick sideways like what your showing and jump out of the opening when you tried to close it. I made it so it couldnt get sideways. The right way would be to take the corner apart and redo the guide that is supposed to be there I think. Let me see if I can find something complete to get a pic of this weekend if nobody has one already.

This is a pretty awful pic but you can see the whats left of the guide that sticks up into the door, to keep the wedge aligned. I think it should stick up about 1/2 " or so? Is this still there on your door ? If it is you may have to unhook the rod at the latch mechanism to get it started and rehook it. I havent found anything easy about latches and cargo doors, just be thankful it isn't a Dodge.

When I was working on my Panel doors I had to make two new guides. Both for the Left doors.. .. I made them 2" high. They close tight and don't rattle anymore..

Dan

The pic I took from this door. its obvious someone had the same problem, but they must have given up ,, the mid latch is gone and the rod and wedge was laying in the bottom,,,

Must be a common issue Joe. All mine were laying in the bottom too...

Yes that guide is still there. If you look in my fourth picture you can see it sticking up about a half inch like you said. So how do I unhook the rod without taking the whole handle mechanism out of the door? Is there a special way I have to twist it or something?

The rod is attached with a very hard to find clip that will break unless delt with very carfully. its best not to jerk with that if you can avoid it.

Its a curious thing how thw rod got out in the first place?

M1D

A thin flat blade screwdriver should pop it off, Carefully like M1 says. Good pic WM. I think just guide wearing out and getting sloppy combined with some misalignment of the door to the opening in the running board and somebody horsing the handle to close it kicks them out. I hate door slammers ! If you can get it back in tho and it still causes a problem once in awhile you can weld that end to get rid of the hinge effect and tweak the rod to help it stay more vertical or redo the guide better Like Dan did.
If you break the clip let me know I'll scrounge one up from around here.

Ok so looking at that picture I pinch the two tabs in and then slide the clip off of them, right?

no... you need to get a flat blade screwdriver and pry the shaft of the pin that the clip squeezes...the end of the rod has an indentation on it that the clip rides in...be carefull with it.... due to age the clip may break....

When I had to scrounge from a couple of spare doors I didn't understand about those little clips and not being able to see very clear in there, I forced the clips off. When I put the rods into the doors on my van I had trouble finding the bottom hole from the inside so I went from the bottom hole up to the handle. Because I lost or broke my clips I used press on retaining rings from the hardware store.

try this

Sorry I am a little slow with this... I have always been more of a visual person...



Here is a picture I took of the end of the rod. You said I am supposed to pry on the pin that the clip is holding onto, so the black piece is the clip, right? And that pointy deal going through it is the pin, right? So I pry on the pin part, not the black clip part?

Thanks for being patient with me

Hey, I know its been a while since I posted this but I got busy and wasnt able to finish what I started. So I just wanted to give an update.

This weekend I finally got back to it and tried again. Was able to pop it off without breaking the clip. Dropped the rod into the slot and popped it back on with no problems. So thanks again to everyone who helped me out.