I opened the can of worms today because I was tired of climbing through the passengers side to open the door, and it seems like the spring that holds the L arm to the actual latch disconnected, where do I reattach it?

 

The linkage between the handle and the mechanism... movement of the handle very faintly wiggles the latch while the inside door handle moves it through the full range... I've foregone the project for now as I ran out of daylight.. But the underside of the handle there's a little L shaped piece of metal that gets pushed down when you push the handle in, I'm just trying to figure it out... I've adjusted the threaded nut that connects the bar to the linkage all the way up to no avail, next weekend I'll go all the way down... It's not engaging the latch enough to open the door

 

Please ALWAYS post what year you are talking about...it GREATLY helps...because there are major differences in a 1968 to a 1982

On your 1978...there is a long rod that attaches to your chrome handle to open the door...which is entirely different than what Alan71 posted photos of...CORRECT.

Well ther is a special clip that atttaches to teh latch mechanism that teh "L" shaped end goes into and gets secured to.

IF you have adjusted the "L" shape end out...and BE CAREFUL that you do not extend/thread it out too far...or it will bend....and doing so you still can not open the door...you have either two problems going on.

1.) Your latch is locked and will not unlock due to the outside handle is either hanging up and not correct or is not adjusted correctly. I do not know if this is the case because you did not state if the door was able to be opened form the outside.

2.) Your latch mechanism is worn out and you can more than likely see a wear spot which is not allowing the door to open.

If this rod is off the latch mechanism...you will have to remove the 3 screws carefully at the door and allow the latch mechanism to pull away from the door a little bit so you can insert the "L" end. Without doing this...it will be almost impossible.

DUB

 

The door will not open from the outside... I'm in the air force and bought the car in tech school, something to do with my free time instead of getting into trouble... it was always a PIA to open the door from the outside, but one night there was a freak storm of freezing rain, and due to my curfew I wasn't able to get outside and throw the car cover on it, after that it won't open from the outside at all... When I was inside the door today the handle still moves the rod that engages the latch, but not enough to release the latch and open the door, leading me to be hopeful that it's just way out of adjustment

 

Is there any way to detach the panel that makes all this stuff virtually inaccessible?

P.S. Thanks for being a repeat commenter on my threads DUB, I appreciate having subject matter experts help me out with this... These cars seem to be a combination of witchcraft and voodoo

 

Is you door open????

OR is the door still shut???

NEED TO KNOW.

There is an override lever to open the door if your can get your window down.

DUB

 

The door still opens from the inside, and I'm talking about the sheet metal panel, not the leather one

 

NO...the steel is a part of your door. The ONLY panel that removes is the access panel to gain access to your power window motor wiring and such.

If your outside door handle is not working...then either it will need to be re-adjusted CAREFULLY and make sure the clips are correctly positioned to make sure that the rod form the handle to the latch are correct as designed.

DUB