| OK, this is a somewhat embarassing question. The passenger door on my 64 Barracuda is stuck shut. How can I get it open without breaking something? Here are the symptoms. The outside lock cylinder seems to be broken but I can pull up the lock from inside the car. It seems to be unlocked. Lifting up on the inside door handle does nothing. Pulling from outside no luck there either. The door does not seem to be 100% closed. I can see a little bit of misalignment where the closed door meets the body but pretty minor. I am getting ready to remove the inside door panel but with the door closed it will be difficult to get to all the screws. And if I do get the panel off, then what? |
| OK, this is a somewhat embarassing question. The passenger door on my 64 Barracuda is stuck shut. How can I get it open without breaking something? Here are the symptoms. The outside lock cylinder seems to be broken but I can pull up the lock from inside the car. It seems to be unlocked. Lifting up on the inside door handle does nothing. Pulling from outside no luck there either. The door does not seem to be 100% closed. I can see a little bit of misalignment where the closed door meets the body but pretty minor. I am getting ready to remove the inside door panel but with the door closed it will be difficult to get to all the screws. And if I do get the panel off, then what? |
I still don't have the door open but here's what I've done so far. I did manage to get the inside door panel off. Two of the screws were difficult but not impossible to get to with the door shut. Even with the door panel off it is difficult to see inside the door.
The first thing I noticed was the little bar from the pop up lock was not connected to anything. So pulling up the lock is not doing anything. Next I lifted the inside door handle. It does move the rod connected to the latch but it does not appear to move any of the latch parts. Examining the good door, I see that lifting the door handle allows the latch "star wheel" to rotate freely. So I am thinking my problem is that the latch parts are not working/connected and the "star wheel" is still latched and not free wheeling.
Next I am going to try to move some of the latch parts with a screwdriver but any other thoughts? Anyone have an exploded view drawing of the latch mechanism?
|
|
ericcuda eric
--- On Tue, 12/22/09, Victor Carre <book...@yahoo.com> wrote:
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I finally got the stinkin' door open. With the door panel off and Ed's picture, I determined that things looked like they should work. I did not see anything obviously broken. So, I took Dustin's advice. I held the door handle up and my son sat in the back seat and kicked the door a few times right near the latch and the door came flying open.
So the real problem is that the door is slightly misaligned. It appears to have dropped down a 1/4" or so. My next job will be to try to adjust the door back in to position. I was wondering if the hinge pins are replaceable?
|
1) Is the door lined up (except the latch) just before you engage the
latch? Is the door visibly too low?
2) With the door almost closed, can you jiggle the door up and down on
the hinges? Any slack here should be hinge pins, but the slop may
actually be an oblong hole in the hinge, no the pins themselves. If the
holes the pins go through are simply oblonged, you can fill the holes by
welding and redrill so the pins fit tightly.
3) If you can't jiggle the door up and down and the body lines line up,
just realign the latch to work.
4) If you can't jiggle the door up and down, the hinges are mounted to
the body and door tightly (haven't moved and caused the door to drop)
,and the body lines do not line up, the door has sagged. You can
possibly bend things back into alignment by placing a 2x4 between the
bottom of the door and the sill plate, as far forward as possible, then
GENTLY pushing the door towards the closed position and GENTLY bouncing
it against the wood. Believe it or not, this is an old body shop trick
and works very well in some cases to bend things back into position.
Dave Schoenberg
Arvada, Colorado
'65 Signet Convertible, 2 '65 Cudas and a bunch of others over the years.
Learned to drive on a the Valiant and a '65 Cuda...... and they were 4
years old at the time.....
On Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:15:29 -0700 kelly pate <knl...@msn.com> writes:
>
> HEY.......glad to see ya got the door open, so you understand if the
> "latch" is not aligned PERFECT! you'll have the same problem. I have
> a 64 Valiant Convertable, and I need to take the door off, repair
> the metal, so the latch will "STAY" in alighnment, have to push the
> botton several times to get the door to open, question is "when will
> it fail"? Good luck on the pins.
>
> Kelly "Ole Car Man" Pate
>
>
>
> Date: Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:08:15 -0800
> From: book...@yahoo.com
> Subject: Re: [EVBC] Stuck Door
> To: evbc...@googlegroups.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
> I finally got the stinkin' door open. With the door panel off and
> Ed's picture, I determined that things looked like they should work.
> I did not see anything obviously broken. So, I took Dustin's
> advice. I held the door handle up and my son sat in the back seat
> and kicked the door a few times right near the latch and the door
> came flying open.
>
> So the real problem is that the door is slightly misaligned. It
> appears to have dropped down a 1/4" or so. My next job will be to
> try to adjust the door back in to position. I was wondering if the
> hinge pins are replaceable?
>
> Thanks for the help all. Vic
>
> --- On Tue, 12/22/09, Ed Diemer <ae...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
>
> From: Ed Diemer <ae...@sbcglobal.net>
> Subject: Re: [EVBC] Stuck Door
> To: evbc...@googlegroups.com
> Date: Tuesday, December 22, 2009, 3:58 PM
>
>
>
>
>
>
> I am attempting to attach the two relevant pages from the '65
> Plymouth Service manual. It appears you can't remove either side of
> the lock hardware until you open the door!
>
> Ed
> 65 Barracuda Commando/4spd
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Glad to hear you got the door open. I had a similar problem with worn hinges a few years ago and as I recall this is how it went:
The hinges are case hardened so it is not practical to attempt to drill or ream out the holes to fit a bush and a new pin. I ended up grinding out the old oval holes and fitting a Chevy replacement bush and pin (all I could get at the time). This ended up working very well but for the amount of time and effort it took I would replace the hinge completely if at all possable if I had to do it again.
As I said that was years ago and things may have changed now.
Best of luck,
Steve.
64 Barracuda, England.