Locks and latches

[AzDon]

Has anybody else noticed that the geometry on the front keylocks, pushdown locks, and the button tailgate latch all have mechanical geometry that actually increases the natural effort required in order to get the travel needed to work the latches. When the front doors are tightly shut, I cannot activate the pushdown locks or lock with a key unless I lean on the door with about 50 lbs of pressure--impossible while sitting inside. I've also found that I haven't got any single finger that can exert enough pressure fully depress the button to release the tailgate. The button pushes a short arm that pushes against a pair of longer arms.
I've decided to do electric doors to eliminate the need for locks in the front. I'm also leaning towards moving the lower tailgate latch inside and having the upper gate pulled shut and held by a linear actuator.

[kev2809]

any progress on this?

[Monte Carlo Man]

Originally Posted by AzDon

Has anybody else noticed that the geometry on the front keylocks, pushdown locks, and the button tailgate latch all have mechanical geometry that actually increases the natural effort required in order to get the travel needed to work the latches. When the front doors are tightly shut, I cannot activate the pushdown locks or lock with a key unless I lean on the door with about 50 lbs of pressure--impossible while sitting inside. I've also found that I haven't got any single finger that can exert enough pressure fully depress the button to release the tailgate. The button pushes a short arm that pushes against a pair of longer arms.
I've decided to do electric doors to eliminate the need for locks in the front. I'm also leaning towards moving the lower tailgate latch inside and having the upper gate pulled shut and held by a linear actuator.

What year, make and model are you talking about.

Back in the old days, it was not as important to lock a vehicle, so I believe that the manufacturers designed them to have a positive lock when you pushed down the button and you wouldn't want someone to stick a coat hanger down inside of the door to steal your ride would you?

The locks in the front doors were easy to take out and there was not much to them, a latch and some springs and you can oil and grease them and they will work like new with just a little elbow grease and time.

Ya they were a little hard to push or pull - but I never locked the doors, probably the reason why so much stuff got stole out of my truck.

I had a harder time pulling out the choke every morning to get it started then anything else.

[Steven B]

I have the same problem on my Jimmy. I also would like to know how to fix this annoying quirk.

[Kevin McPherson]

I wish the ones on my 67 sub were a little harder to push /pull, all I need to do is accidently touch them, and they are locked

[Monte Carlo Man]

Why not get some 1970's style power locks actuators and put them inside of the door and then put a button somewhere on the door and then when you want to lock or unlock the doors, just push the button.

For a long time, I collected 1976 - 77 Monte Carlo's and most all of them had all power options. The doors fell apart, so I was always searching for good doors and I was taking all the power options out of the doors that I already had.

I ended up with a big pile of inventory after about 12 years. I also found out what goes bad and what is durable. I almost never found a bad lock part on a 77 Monte

[AzDon]

I had already oiled,polished, and re-lubed the front door stuff and it simply is a case of poor geometry of the linkages as the result of the mechanisms needing longer travel than what the keylock or pushdown provide.
I'm going to qualify this by saying that I like the doors latched tight so they don't rattle. The lock mechanism forces a catch between the teeth on the latch wheel and it won't readily drop in when the wheel is under tension. It only fully aligns if there is no tension on the wheel.
I have happier news about the gate latch... I realized that I was having to press the button too deep when releasing the lower gate. I solved this temporarily by taking the release linkage rods and putting a little "S" bend in each to shorten them. This results in the gate releasing nearer the top of button travel. I also devised a way to stabilize the right hinge pocket of the upper hatch after having the broken spotwelds fixed, so I might just use the stock stuff out back.
I'm still going to do the three doors electric to eliminate the front locks

[mosesburb]

I figured out a fix for this as I had the same problem on my drivers door and just recently on my passenger door. I had done my drivers door awhile back, but I didn't want to post up before I had run it for awhile. Just today I had my passenger door off for some much needed welding in the hinge area and figured I'd do the mod to that door while I was in there.

What I did was I remeoved the latch mechanism from the door and ground a very small amount of material off of the "triangle" nub on the locking arm with a carbide bit in my Dremel tool.



It really does not take much material removal to make a HUGE difference (seriously, not much). Once you have it out, you can see that there are actually a couple ways that the rotating pawl is locked in place when the locking mechanism is engaged.

Now, I am not saying this is the right way or the only way, but it is a very simple mod to do and I would do it again to every latch I have to get rid of that having to lean on the door to lock it (what a PITA). Now both of my doors lock and unlock with no effort at all--none.

Hope this helps.

[Rick212]

How much metal did you grind off from the "triangle section"? Are we taking shaving off 1/32 of an inch or more??

Was the removed metal taken off in a straight line on that side where you have the Dremel bit?

My drivers door needs pressure being pushed from the outside of the door in order for the door locking mechanism to function at all.

Thanks...Rick

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by Rick212

How much metal did you grind off from the "triangle section"? Are we taking shaving off 1/32 of an inch or more??

Yeah, somewhere around there. I did not measure it, but it really didn't take much.

Originally Posted by Rick212

Was the removed metal taken off in a straight line on that side where you have the Dremel bit?

Yes it was.

Originally Posted by Rick212

My drivers door needs pressure being pushed from the outside of the door in order for the door locking mechanism to function at all.

Thanks...Rick

That is exactly how mine was which prompted me to figure out what was actually happening. That is when I tried this and found it to work with no other mods so I was pleased with it. A few months later my passenger door started doing the same thing. I didn't feel like tearing it apart just for this so when I repaired the huge crack in the hinge area I fixed it then. Quick and easy (other than removing the latch from the door).

[Rick212]

Well...I ground down the triangle part and cleaned the pi$$ out of the inside gears(or whatever that center piece is called). There was forty years of crap built up that may have added to the problem

Works perfect now.

THANKS!!!!!

Rick

[johnnye23]

This has been a pet peeve of mine since getting my truck over ten years ago. I also have to push the passenger door after latch has latched to get the lock button pushed down when locking the truck. I ordered new latches ( still waiting btw...) maybe I need to mod the new latches before installing them.Good info here,thanks.