Last week or so I have had to "Catch up" with some maintenance issues.

Yes, Mine was a Garage Queen, this means I have to order 1 of everything very soon.

Anyway the Headlight motor is now fixed so "next"!

The Door lock on the Driver side (one day) just all the sudden is "freewheeling" to use a term from another thread on the subject. Now the fun starts.

Once the Door panel is off (that is another thread in itself) I pulled back the Plastic sound dampening and with the Window down. I could just barely see the linkage rod. It had falling out and the piece of plastic is still in the Lock tumbler assembly but a piece that holds onto the rod is broken.

My challenge is, Take the whole Door lock apart and get a new plastic piece, But this would require taking apart the entire door insides. Understand you can't get a hand in there unless you have very slender hands. I could get my hands in there just enough to push the metal rod back into the plastic piece but since the plastic piece had a bit of it broken off, the Rod would just slip right back off again.

solution, All you need to do is get the rod to stay in the plastic piece that has broken. Enter, Two part epoxy, or Gorilla Glue. The Trick is to get the Glue down into a spot that you can barely reach with a hand...much less a tube of glue.

Once the epoxy is mixed, take a long Flat head and be thinking putty knife and carefully slide that Screwdriver into the door and smear some of the epoxy onto the plastic piece. Be care full to only get it on the side where the rod is inserted. This plastic piece rotates when you twist the Key, so it has to remain glue free on the side that contacts the tumbler. Now, slide your hand back in and push the rod back into the plastic making sure that there is enough glue to contact both surfaces. Step away for at least 4 hours. then test and put the door panel back on.

I know this is Cheesy, but I just couldn't get myself to disassemble the entire door. And what the Heck if works~

I finished this Yesterday and so far the fix seems to work. I'll be updating this thread if it fails.

 

total door disassembly is for that day you upgrade the power windows from the early ribbon style to the later regulator style!

until then, this fix will do the trick!

 

You were close to your goal! The window must be up to get at the lock assembly and you have to remove the aluminum panel for ease of access. If the plastic piece is what I am thinking, it is relatively easy to remove and replace....with a couple of Bud lites. I hope you fix "holds".

 

Sounds cheesy.