Door lock swap?

Minh Nguyen · 09-29-1999, 08:30 PM

hello all,
here's the situation. i just got a '74 914 and of course it has it's share of little "nuances". one of them is that the driver's side door lock does not work correctly, but the passenger's side does. i can still lock both doors, but i can only unlock the passenger's door. the key still turns in the driver's side lock, but it does not seem to be pushing against anything. my actual question is whether i can interchange the parts in the two door locks so that i can get the driver's side working. i have not yet taken the locks off to inspect any of the parts, and was hoping that someone had some experience with this before i did.

i'm hoping for an easy and inexpensive way to not have to climb or reach across the passenger side.

thanx in advance for any kind of insight.

JP Noonan · 09-29-1999, 08:53 PM

Either the "cam" has broken off (small pot metal peice on the end of the lock cylinder) or, beleive it or not, the mechinism is just really dirty. In any case, the door panel needs to come off (remove the window crank, either a little disc pops out or the whole plastic casing comes off, there is one screw. The rest of the screws are easy to find around the door pocket and in the release handle, also there are "push" type retainers) spray the linkage down with WD-40 to clean it, then use some other spray lube, like silicone. If that doesn't work you need to remove the 10mm (maybe 8mm) nut from outside the door, and the 4mm (again maybe 5mm or 6mm) allen bolt inside the door. The handle then pops out, the cam is held on to the cylinder with a bugle flat head screw.

You COULD swap cams from one side to another (the handles, BTW, are side specific) or buy a new cam (I'm guessing $5-$10) so you don't have to mess taking the other door panel off.

7391417 · 09-30-1999, 10:08 AM

I had the same problem, on the end of the lock cylinder there is a raised square wich the cam seats over. The little square had actually worn away or broken so when the cylinder turned it turned inside of the cam instead of moving the cam. All I did is replace the cylinder, which was not very hard to do.

Minh Nguyen · 10-04-1999, 10:21 PM

thanx you two for your replies...the little square piece on the end of the lock cylinder was broken off, as you suspected. it only took me about 45 minutes to repair, which was pretty cool.

and thanx to pelican and those who wrote the amazingly helpful tech articles.

[This message has been edited by Minh Nguyen (edited 10-04-1999).]