Door lock question (yes...another but hopefully asked in a new way)
 

I have'nt been able to get the drivers door to lock properly in a year, but now I look again I have a specific question. When the door is locked should the 2 metal arms touching the end of each other in the picture (arrow) not touch each other, in other words go past each other. And when the door is unlocked should they hit each other, effectively activating the latch mechanism that opens the door ?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1453091286.jpg

So I can't answer your specific questions but I was doing some work on my driver's side door recently with the door open and somehow it wouldn't lock. Manually doing the latch thing on the door didn't work, but eventually I closed the door normally and that cleared the problem. I don't know exactly what's going on but maybe that will help.

Eric, I think that when the door is open it is intended that the door will not lock to prevent accidentally locking yourself out.

To answer the original question I have sorted lock problems in the past so think that you are right to say that the two arms need to be touching so that the lever on the handle can open the door. When these two arms miss each other the door is in the locked position so that operating the door handle lever has no effect (the arms just pass each other).

But this doesn't solve your problem. Can you flip the arms so that that they miss each other, in other words, can you press down on those right hand levers? I would think not as from your photo it looks like the lock is open which means it can't be locked. To simulate closing the lock you need to rotate the latch (not visible in your photo but on the underside until it is fully latched - onto second ratchet). then you should be able to flip the arms. Try this and report back. By the way it looks as though it could do with some WD40 spraying on the ratchet.

Instead of WD-40, consider this: HHS-K Hinge Lubricant | Specialty Lubricants | Lubricants | Chemical Product | Wurth Site

Thanks guys, will try the trick with deploying the latch this evening and report back. To be honest I 'stole' the picture from the web

I dont want to take mine out unless I absolutely have to :)

OK, so that's just an example.
I'm not sure what the problem is then without seeing the lock. It could be that the lever on the door handle is broken; it is angled so that it acts against the "two fingers" on the lock. Or as in the case of the lock on my car a circlip ( snapring?) fell out and allowed a spring to move out of position. What are the exact symptoms? Can you lock it from the inside (with the door shut). Can you lock it from the outside with a key?
Do you have the door card off so that you can see what's happening?

Yes the door card is off (I was fixing the door stop) Symptoms are you get out, lock the door and the button doesn't go down every time, if you rock the key back and forth a couple of times eventually it might do and the door is locked. Then when you try to get in with the door locked (to test it) you pull the trigger/lever once, its locked, release and pull again, its locked, pull the trigger again and there is the tell tale clicking sound and the door opens (not always the third time, random). My theory (which may be wrong) is that the levers are 'hitting' each other when they shouldn't be.

Not sure how that relates to the first bit when you try to lock the door from the outside and it takes a few 'cycles' of the key to get it to lock/button goes down, but that's as far as ive got.

Thanks

OK. This sounds like it might be the lever on the inside of the door handle has worked loose. When you turn the key this lever is moved back and forth and makes contact with those "two fingers", unlocking in one direction and locking in the other. The lever is held on to the door handle with a screw; you may be able to tighten it without removing the handle. You might be able to feel it to see if it is loose, otherwise you will have to remove the handle. Take care here as when I did this one of the two nuts broke off; might need some WD40.

Thanks guys. I will remove the handle this weekend and check everything out. I have had it off before and tightened the screw but maybe its worked its way loose again, it was about a year ago. Will report back

Well I took a closer look with a mirror and a flashlight. Couldn't work it out so removed the passenger door card to look at that one then it became obvious. Half the time the levers were 'hitting' each other with the door locked, with a small pair of pliers and a gentle touch I bent the arm out slightly, and the other one the opposite way slightly with a bit of messing around and a strategically placed packing piece, I reckon its gone from working 30% of the time to 95% of the time, will do a bit more tweaking this week and get the door card back on, good to go. Thanks