door wont unlock...

[uchi]

ive been playing with the search feature on here and ofund a ton of info regarding the door locks. generally its them being slow to unlock or taking a few presses and then open. thats my pass side. gotta push the lock manually to lock it and itll unlock on its own. which is funny because last year it did the opposite. the problem is the driver side door. it started to act up this winter and wouldnt unlock even with the keypad and now im noticing that even when i try to use the key its just feeling like it turns halfway and seizes. ive watch the door flex a little as ive tried to force it to unlock. usually i just start pressing the unlock button on the keypad while i fiddle with the key and most of the time it works. but i usually end up standing there looking like a dumbass. so once we finally get a day that isnt freezing i want to pull the door panel off and see if i can grease something up and im hoping its an easy fix. so far ive shot probably a quarter of a can of wd40 into the lock trying to get it to fix itself but the problem hasnt been fixed. so my question is this, what am i looking for when i get the door panel off? and what should i lube up? ill bathe everything in there in grease if i have to, but i want to make sure i dont miss anything. thanks

 

[ridgerunner-vt]

Bad door locks

Uchi - Had this same issue with both my X's. On the 2000 a small spring in the latch box broke, which can sometimes be found by looking into the latch from the door edge. The simple fix is to remove the door panel and take a small spring and find the latch rod behind the latch box. Hook the spring around the upper bend of this rod and attach to any opening in the latch box. Holding this rod up allows the lock to function.
On the '96, the latch rod has a plastic disc that is attached to the edge of the door below the latch. The disc broke, letting the rod fall and the lock to jamb up. In this case I drilled a new hole through the edge of the door into the disc and reattached with a small screw. The door panel needs to come off so that the plastic disk can be held against the door edge.

These are home grown fixes that are not likely permanent but have worked for almost a year now.

Good luck.

 

[uchi]

perfect thanks bud, i was hoping this wasnt the issue. guess its time to get surgical on this beast. maybe itll be warm and sunny today and not - 15. lol.

 

[uchi]

yup i found a little spring in the latch area a half hour ago, just hanging out there not attached to anything. gonna pull the door panel off see if i can figure out where that little ******* goes to. the manual i downloaded for the truck doesnt have a picture of the latch, atleast not one i found

 

[sean99]

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=165081&highlight=floppy+door

 

[uchi]

thanks sean. maybe ill get lucky and ill get t boned on the driver side before i get around to doing it. lol

 

[swshawaii]

Please delete. Posted in wrong thread.

 

[fixt]

Lock internals pictured

I just went through this, though a slightly different problem.
There's pictures of the lock internals I took after disassembling my old one that shows where the little spring goes. You'll need some strong forceps or the like to reattach it.

Pictures at the end of this thread, its a drivers side rear door lock though.
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=388597

ETA: I should look at dates posted