yup, your right Gov, it does hook to the door latch and a pivot bracket to the left of the inner door handle
ended up cutting open my old door, and no, it was not really a savable door, entire bottom is rusted off and the next 4" up are full of bondo
what was screwing me up was the mystery rod fell out of the winda regulator with the door lock rod...how it got from the back of the door to the front of the door is beyond me...

anyways, just in case anyone ends up messing with the lock rods in their crew or sub rr doors, here's how it goes, like ya say, my mystery rod goes to the latch from a pivot bracket
what a total pia to get the rod clips on, can barely get my fingers in there and 95% of it was done strictly by feel, can't see a darn thing in the rr doors
worth the hassle, locks up beautifully now...coming together GOV