Passenger door won't open from outside when it's unlocked?

[meanwire]

Passenger door won't open from outside when it's unlocked? Anybody else experience this before and if so how do you fix it. Any help would greatly be appreciated! Figured I'd ask you experts before tearing into. Thanks!

 

[Ranchtruck]

Cleaning all the oil soaked dirt out of the door latch mechanism usually fixes it. You have to pull the door panel to get in there and properly clean it out with solvent and compressed air.

 

[DirtDonk]

Yep, what he said. And in your case too, unfortunately you might have run afoul of the dreaded bent plate syndrome.
If this has been a hard door to open and close for awhile, one of the actuating plates/levers within the latch mechanism might have become slightly bent and be jamming up where the lever from the door button rod is trying to push it. Instead jamming up on it.

So if the cleaning does not do the trick, you might have to pull it out and slightly re-bend the offending lever.
With luck though, a good cleaning will take care if it.

Have fun!

Paul

 

[jw0747]

mine had same problem. 40+ year old window channel had broken loose and was jamming door latch mechanism.

 

[Justafordguy]

After you clean and lube the mechanism make sure the rod running to the inside handle isn't too tight. I had to loosen mine a little and it fixed that problem.

 

[BronCowie]

After you clean and lube the mechanism make sure the rod running to the inside handle isn't too tight. I had to loosen mine a little and it fixed that problem.

I had to adjust mine like this also. It would open fine from the inside but I had to jerk the cr@p out of the outside handle to open. Its been a few years but as I recall mine was too loose from years of use and I had to take a little slack out of it. You have to pull that rod off of its fitting and spin an adjusting nut a turn or two to get right. Mine has worked great ever since.

 

[Old School]

My usual line on any tech question:
Let's start at the beginning before having a guess-fest:


Does the button go all the way in and nothing happens?
Or, does the button feel hard to push and not want to go all the way in?

 

[meanwire]

"Does the button go all the way in and nothing happens?
Or, does the button feel hard to push and not want to go all the way in?"

The button goes in all they way but won't pull open.

 

[orangecrush4u]

I have a similar prob but when I spray the inside mech with oil it works great for a couple months.

 

[Steve83]

The op rod for the outside handle is slightly too long, and isn't fully releasing the mechanism. You can adjust it shorter, or you can do this mod:

 

[bronco loco]

"Does the button go all the way in and nothing happens?
Or, does the button feel hard to push and not want to go all the way in?"

The button goes in all they way but won't pull open.

Same here, button pushed all down, opens fine from the inside.