90 Suburban rear barn door lock/latch fix

[shiner2001]

Since I picked up my Suburban a few weeks ago, I have one by one been rehabbing the innards on each of my doors (mainly lubing the power locks and window regulators so they actually go up and down on command) and finally got around to the rear passenger barn door today. The problem I had been having with it was that when the door was unlocked, about 75% of the time I tried to open it, it would only "half way" unlatch (imagine clicking the door shut instead of slamming it) when I tried to open it, and would then have to be unlocked again to get it the rest of the way open. Once I took the door panel off to see inside, I could tell what was going on when the problem occurred. In the picture below with the letters on it, you can see the main parts involved. "A" is the plunger attached to the button that you push from the outside, and "B" is the plate that, when in its upper position, is struck by "A" to actuate the latch. When the plate is in its lower position, the plunger clears the top of it and you get no resistance to the button being pushed (i.e., your door is locked). My problem is that "A" would push "B" back far enough to pop the door, but would then slide over the top of "B," basically locking itself halfway through the opening process. That's why when I, with the key, re-unlocked the door (raising "B" back into position to be struck by "A", the door would finish opening. My fix was to simply weld a nut on the end of "A" (which originally has a rounded end, which aided in the slipping) so that it had a greater surface with which to contact and push "B." Pretty simple fix and the door works 100% of the time now. Now to just replace my actuator, which will only lock the door, and I'll be all set...door wise.

After the fix, door unlocked.



After the fix, door unlocked, button being pushed from outside.




After the fix, door locked (notice how "A" will simply clear the top of "B").



After the fix, door locked, button being pushed from outside.



Wordy for a small fix, but hey, I'm bored.