[82 Silverado 4X]

Boy, I wish I could help but I've never seen the inside if a Ranger door. This is "one tight Chevy group" and I see it is really rough on NON-CHEVY questions.
Here's some ideas you might look into:
Is it possible that the rod doesn't go directly down to the latch?Maybe it toggles off another joint foward of the latch where the mechanism for the inside lock is and the hole in the latch that you are trying to hook into would be for the power lock option.