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Are the doors supposed to unlock themselves when you pull the lever to open the door from the inside?
While doing something completely unrelated I looked at the inside door handle (big mistake) and noticed a spring sitting at an odd angle connected to the lock shaft.
What does this spring actually do? It's connected from the lock shaft to the opening handle and seems to try to re-center the lock **** (turn it one way or the other and it tried to pull it back to the center position)
Only thing I can think of would be that when you pull on the lever it pulls harder on that spring and would try to pull the lock **** back away from locked position...
I don't thing I've ever had the doors locked while I'm inside so I've never tried it. One side has the broken spring and the other side was so bunged full of dried grease the spring did nothing
Here's the one that's together (minus a ton of gunk that prevented the spring from even working on this side)
The spring in question is in the center there and goes through and connects to the block that the handle bolts to
My '72 vert been garage kept most of it's life....in a repaint/redo some years ago, I eliminated ALL door locks......WHO in their right mind would LOCK a convertible???
I'll be interested to know the answer as well. My mechanisms do not have that spring: whichever I way I turn the lock ****, it just stays there.
Mine always stayed where you turned them, and I suspect even now with this one cleaned and moving freely it will still stay wherever it's set.
I think the spring would try to turn it (unlock) when the lever is pulled to open the door.
If not that then the only thing it could do is place a small amount of load on the rods and keep them from rattling but there is the rubber mushroom anti-rattle bits for that....
My '72 vert been garage kept most of it's life....in a repaint/redo some years ago, I eliminated ALL door locks......WHO in their right mind would LOCK a convertible???
I can't remember the last time mine was locked for any reason other than seeing if the locks still worked.
This of course really makes me wonder why I'm running wires for future remote entry actuators
M
On a 72, turning the lock **** disables the inside handle. It will pull out but the door won't open. You have to manually turn the **** back to open the door. The spring is to put pressure on the **** to stay in whichever position it is, so it won't move by itself. It pulls pressure against the lever the lock **** shaft is attached to..
On a 72, turning the lock **** disables the inside handle. It will pull out but the door won't open. You have to manually turn the **** back to open the door...
Now that you say that I do agree, (been a long time) the lock disengages the operation of the handle. That all happens at the latch if I remember correctly.
Originally Posted by 65GGvert
...The spring is to put pressure on the **** to stay in whichever position it is, so it won't move by itself. It pulls pressure against the lever the lock **** shaft is attached to..
Strange part there is that it is actually doing the opposite, on the bench anyway.
When it's not connected to any linkage, turning the **** CCW (pass side) to the lock position stretches the spring out and it wants to pull it back CW.
I'm sure with all the linkage hooked up this spring will not actually be able to move anything but the way it's set up now it's trying to return the **** to the straight (**** basically straight horizontal) position.
Maybe my linkages are really out of adjustment or something.
Ok, then maybe it makes it hard to lock and easy to unlock so you don't accidentally lock it by bumping? Sounds reasonable to me. Probably just anti-rattle as you said. It really should just hold pressure against the end of the lever so it makes contact and causes friction and after it passes by the center point, less back pressure. I guess it doesn't matter if it works like it should.
Hi,
My sense too is that you're overcoming the spring tension when the **** is being turned to 'lock' and then it offers some assistance when 'unlocking'.
It feels to me that if you 'start' the **** in the 'unlock' direction it almost finishes on it it's own because of the spring.
Regards,
Alan
Hi,
My sense too is that you're overcoming the spring tension when the **** is being turned to 'lock' and then it offers some assistance when 'unlocking'.
It feels to me that if you 'start' the **** in the 'unlock' direction it almost finishes on it it's own because of the spring.
Regards,
Alan
That's all it seems to do. Strange part is that the spring is connected to the open lever instead of just a post or something at the other end. Seems like a lot of extra parts/work for very little function
If the spring was stronger (or the linkage free-er), a pull on the lever would unlock the door (latch still wouldn't actually activate) and then a second pull would then open it.
That said, for some reason I think the lock can not be unlocked if the lever is in the pulled position. Can't check right now since mine are all apart at this point (I need to start wearing blinder when working on the car)
Complicated setup for a very very slight assistance on unlocking.
I wonder if there was a different plan at some point or if the basic design was a carry over from some other car.
But hey, at least now it's clean, just have to find a replacement spring for the drivers side
M
Here's some more conjecture: maybe they used the same door lock with and without power locks and the power locks need the spring assistance to unlock. I made that up, and don't even know if power locks were available, but it gave me something to think about.
The more I think about it, I honestly believe there was going to be something more to it and it never happened or got cancelled or whatever and they just left it that way, no harm, no foul.
Even with mine bunged right full of dried grease, undercoating looking tar, hardened wax (separated grease?) and a broken spring, it's pretty easy to turn the **** to lock or unlock.
I just hate things that I don't know how/why they work so rather than going ahead.... more stuff coming apart.
Didn't plan on it but I've got the entire system out on the bench soaking and degunking so if nothing else it gave an excuse strip and check everything over then lube up for the next 40 years...
Maybe I'll make a post or something on how to assemble and adjust the rube-goldberg latch/lock mechanism when I put it all back together. At least then it'll look like I did it for a reason.
At the first of the vid, I set the doorlock, you can see the lock lever moved ahead, 5 pulls and it actually unlocks the door, 6 pulls and it moves the lever into the full unlock position.
I don't think this will work with the door panel in place and any pressure on the lock **** but it's an interesting thing happening there.
M
72 Interior Door Lock Question
