Removing the door latch mechanism?

[reluctantgardner]

spent many hours trying to get the door latch mechanism off, to sort out the central door locking and ease the shut of the door, the Manual says "Release control rods from latch mechanism. Remove the latch mechanism from the door"

any ideas how to remove the control rods, I have removed the allen bolts [where does the short one go back?] and lots of washers and a plate fell out but the mechanism remains attached and i can't see how to get it off, from both either the interior handle or the exterior lock [anyone got an exploded parts view of the door mechanism that may help?]

also when removing the interior door trim the mirror adjustment switch came apart and lots of tiny little 'dumb bell' shaped connectors fell out...yes you have guessed it one is missing, these little blighters are needed to enable the switch from drivers door to passenger door mirror to be made on the PCB and also to allow full control of the mirror. Anyone got a spare switch or some of the little 'dumb bells' I could purchase?

New years day drive in the country looking decidedly iffy

Cheers
Pete

[Pete Boole]

If you are really struggling with this PM me with your contact details and I'll come over - I live near Nottingham - it wouldn't take me long to get there - not in mine unfortunately as all the suspension is off again to modify the rear lower arms to allow correct alignment of some new dampers.

Another Pete!

[rbgosling]

There are two rods connecting the interior handle to the latch mechanism, which must be disconnected at the handle end. The rods are held onto the handle by a clip that looks rather like this:



(That's apparently a Jeep Cherokee of some sort, but the plastic clip mechanism is much the same on most cars). At the mechanism end the rods are threaded in, which gives you an opportunity to adjust them

Then there's another one that connects to the lock on the exterior handle, although I seem to remember the exterior door opening handle doesn't have anything that needs to be disconnected, it pushes on a plate but there's no permanent connection.

Once that's done, you should be able to remove the latch mechanism. It does take a fair bit of wiggling to get it out, but it's possible.

[rbgosling]

N.B. if you subscribe to access to the parts catalogue you can see everything pretty clearly here. Although that seems to contradict my memory that there isn't a rod from the exterior handle to the mechanism...

[DavidOliver]

Hello Pete, as a new member I am still discovering how to post replies and not yet round to posting photographs. I have just had the door latch off to cure a partial closing of the door, one latch only and no final closing on my 85 SA. There is no central locking as original. Having got access from inside and disconnected the four control rods I needed more than a twiddle to remove the latch, deciding to make a small access cut on the fibreglass doorbody with the Dremel to ease the bottom left hand lever mechanism.
Once removed I drilled out the central rivet giving access to the internals, Must be done in an enclosed area as a small spring loading the latch loves to fly where you are not looking, including a small plastic follower on the spring.
Having checked the movements I reassembled the unit and replacing the drilled rivet with a short bolt with nut on the outside of the latch, this does not foul the body work after fitting.
Adjusting the control rods is vital, acheived by screwing each one more or less into the latch trunnions before fixing with the plastic flipclips.
If you enjoy repairing wristwatches this one is for you, otherwise Lotusbits.
Best wishes David Oliver

[reluctantgardner]

Hello Pete, as a new member I am still discovering how to post replies and not yet round to posting photographs. I have just had the door latch off to cure a partial closing of the door, one latch only and no final closing on my 85 SA. There is no central locking as original. Having got access from inside and disconnected the four control rods I needed more than a twiddle to remove the latch, deciding to make a small access cut on the fibreglass doorbody with the Dremel to ease the bottom left hand lever mechanism.
Once removed I drilled out the central rivet giving access to the internals, Must be done in an enclosed area as a small spring loading the latch loves to fly where you are not looking, including a small plastic follower on the spring.
Having checked the movements I reassembled the unit and replacing the drilled rivet with a short bolt with nut on the outside of the latch, this does not foul the body work after fitting.
Adjusting the control rods is vital, acheived by screwing each one more or less into the latch trunnions before fixing with the plastic flipclips.
If you enjoy repairing wristwatches this one is for you, otherwise Lotusbits.
Best wishes David Oliver

Thanks All
I now have the mechanism off, mended and ready to replace, once the refurb of the door beam is complete. My problem was a bent rear plate which allowed the mechanism to catch internally and prevent locking and unlocking. I will attach a piccy of the internals for future reference [given the parts manual does not provide this insight ] as soon as i work out how to include pictures

Anyway all is well and looking forward to the spring when i can get out and about in it

Cheers
Pete

[amarshall]

Posting pictures : http://www.lotusexcel.net/phpbb/viewtop ... =16&t=1639

[majcd213]

Hi all struggling with me 84 Excel passenger door latch at the moment. Having taken it apart by drilling out the rivet as above I am pretty sure I have found the problem- The key lock plate should locate over the spring loaded pin so that it slides back to its start point after turning the key... mine was bent, this had lifted the latch backing plate and allowed the slider to ride up over the pin and jam intermittently instead of sliding smoothly back down. Bent it back and it seems to be fine; an incredibly simple fix apart from the fact that I don't know how to put it back together. This thread mentions a nut and bolt but what sort and what size? Is this countersunk for instance? was the lock drilled through? I think this fastener might only be significant when fitting the latch, as the latch retaining screws will presumably nip it all up tight but if this rivet is also a fulcrum point then a good fit (and some strength in the metal) is presumably needed. The rivet in question is 0.25 inch in diameter- seen here from an Elan posting but it seems to be the same. They concluded that its a former BL part (allegro) but I doubt it is available now and in fact that thread terminated with buying a new latch!

Any suggestions for the best way to close this latch?
thanks
Mike

[alanbell]

you should enjoy replacing the door lock mechanism, when i had the near side door beam replaced by a well regarded professional restorer it took 2 hours to remove and replace the beam, door skin and wjndow actuator but 7 hours to replace the door lock mechanism so that the central locking worked, the proprietor said the mechanic doing it was near to a nervous breakdown !. good luck with it i rather think you will need it.

[majcd213]

Thanks Alan- I am hoping that I've found the fault although getting everything back is of course a worry! Luckily this car doesn't have central locking and so that at least is a complication I don't need to worry about!

I do have a query though... maybe you can help? The larger of the two rod plates is attached to the internal handle. One of its arms has a small cutout in the base. This looks to me like it should locate over something but I cant find anything in that position? Maybe I have something missing or broken? The next few pics show the bit I mean and the cutout is visible in the last picture as the plate is lifted away from the rear of the latch body. Sorry about the focus on some of these- camera is tending to "hunt" My blog http://majcd213.blogspot.co.uk/explains more about what I've been doing and where I have got to.





Cheers all
Mike

[majcd213]

Chdcking some previous posts I see warnings that a setscrew can work loose? I didnt find any setscrews so Im not sure what is meant here? Although there seems to be only one part no for the latch.they do seem to be changed later on? Is the setscrew in a later version?

[alanbell]

i am sorry to be so late with this, the computer has been away at the magician's. in any case i have never touched any door latch or lock since my first attempt resulted in a pile of parts i could not reassemble, first and last (failed) attempt. not much help i'm afraid.

[Phantasm]

There is a set screw that secures the rod that goes to the central locking motor unit to the lever arm that acts on the rod controlled by the interior door lock latch. If you don't have central locking, than this set screw likely wouldn't exist. I don't recall any other set screws in the mix of the door latch mechanism, I've recently replaced both door beams and setup both mechanisms in the past few months. They are all that bad once you understand how the linkages interact. One or two rotations of the connecting rods can make a huge difference in how well things interlink with each other.

[majcd213]

Thanks... thats pretty much what I thought. I did get it all working as luckily the problem in the latch was fairly simple. I dont think the rod lengths are optimal but hey, it works and Im not really sure what I would change to improve it.

[mrpmarchant]

Oh well, the slider (which I think is brass) has broken in mine, so am intending to make a new one out of aluminium angle to replace it.