I have a 1985 Corvette, my drivers side door lock has the key broken off in it. I have new locks from O'Reillies that should work to replace, BUT, HOW do I replace them? I took the door panel off but good grief... HOW do you reach the lock? Do I have to take the entire metal interior door panel off too? And there are little pieces underneath some of the bolts on the top that, once you take the bolt out, how do you get that stuff underneath back on, they would just fall down inside the door. Good grief... THANK GOD I have a DODGE truck... it is SOOO easy to fix things... Damn GM stuff has to be so difficult! Anyway, HOW do you replace those door locks without taking the ENTIRE door panel apart, and IS it possible?

 

Just trying to think of if off the top of my head but I believe replacing that lock would require removing everything short of the window regulator motor, which will stay bolted in place. It's one of those set-it-forget-it items bolted in that was probably expected to last the life of the car or at least long enough to no longer be GM's problem to service. Glass may have to come out for total ease of access, which at that point, you have undone the guides and stops attached to the door handle plate, as well as removed it. Maybe look into a "set" from one of the big Corvette parts suppliers that gives you refurbished handles with new locks and keys.

Also I believe the 1985 handle has platic studs which have metal cutting nuts that "bite" into the plastic stud on original installation and hold it firm to the door. Once you undo those cutting nuts, make sure you thread it back on so it follows the original pattern it cut into the studs or you may have a problem firmly fastening it back. And....it's plastic and 30 years old at this point, so snug it down but be careful. I believe later year C4s got handles with actual metal threaded studs for a basic nut to fasten it. Not sure why it never was done like that from the beginning.

 

I had to take the one out of my '87 to get a key made for it. You're in for a good time. Hope you have small hands. :-)

 

You know this is going to sound pretty silly but if you have to replace the lock anyway, and if you have the original key that broke off, try a tiny tiny dab of some type of metal specific bonding agent on the key and broken piece? Once fully cured, give the lock a good squirt of W40 and maybe it would hold well enough to pull out the tip lodged in the lock? Just trying to save you the hassle of going into the door. A lot of the stuff at 30 years kind of crumbles or snaps apart when the pulled on. If it were me and I wasn't looking to fully refurbish the entire door, I'd probably see if a locksmith could help....the extra bucks spent on one would probably offset the frustration of going into the door.

 

I finally finished this job on my 85. It literally took me the better part of 2 months as it's a very hard to reach/small space and I broke many of the little plastic clips while doing the job. A service manual is great place to start as is this link on Super chevy:
http://www.superchevy.com/how-to/vem...olet-corvette/

If there's anyway you can get a set of replacement keys from a dealer then you SHOULD DO THIS and don't try to fix the locks yourself. If you're set on doing it the hard way then best of luck. Now that I've done one, I'm sure I could do another in 1-2 hours but I spent better then 10 hours across many days working on this trying different things.

I largely followed the directions in the super chevy article except for they don't really comment on how to get the lock out of the door handle so that's where I just tried different stuff until I got the damn thing apart.

Here's how I finally got the lock out and back in.
Follow the super chevy directions. When you have the metal sheet fully disconnected from the door frame. Next disconnect the door lock assembly from the side of the door (3 hex bolts). Once it's disconnected you can disconnect the door lock rod and door handle rods. These are connected via small metal L shaped metal rods. The L shape has a plastic clip around the end that clips into a hole in the piece that it fastens too. Just pop the plastic piece out. It helps if you shimmy the sheet metal piece all they way towards the front of the vehicle to give yourself more room to get your hand in there. It's tight so a pair of small will help.

The plastic lock rod connectors are easy to break and/or don't hold as well once you've pulled them apart so go ahead and order 3 of these plastic door lock rod retainers (http://www.parts123.com/corvettecent...50f&ukey=17944) Before starting the job.

Once the 2 lock rods are disconnected you can pull the entire door lock assembly and sheet metal out of the door. Again you'll want to push it as far forward and down as possible then pull it up and out to get it out of the door. Once this is done you have much more room to see the lock cylinder.

Once you can see the lock cylinder you'll see the end of the lock rod held in place with a crescent shaped clip. Pull this clip up gently and it will pop off. Once it's off you can pull the tear drop shaped flat metal piece off the lock rod, and most importantly pull the door handle and old lock cylinder out the front of the door. It helps if you hold the door handle in the open position when pulling it out.

Once there follow the super chevy article to finish the job.

 

PM me if you have any questions.

 

Couple more things...

Remember that the lock cylinders only go in 1 way so there is a drivers side lock and a passenger side lock. The lock has to go in so that the door lock wire is facing up.

Also the door handle is held on by "speed" nuts. I don't know why these are used but they an 11m wrench will work to get them on and off. Just remember that they are very easy to drop and loose. Also, there is a small gap in the corner of the door towards the inner rear of the inside of the door. Make sure you cover that with newspaper or some duct tape so when you drop stuff it doesn't fall down into that gap where you can't get it out.

 

Have you tried to have a locksmith extract the broken key piece?