Last night my recently retrieved from temporary retirement '79 245 started to give me problems. My girlfriend got locked in the passengers side and I had to let her out by open the door from the outside. This has happenned before but not often. When I attempted to shut the door it would not latch. I fiddled with the latch a couple of times and the door closed fine.

When I openned the passenger door this morning, no ammount of fidling woul make the latch work. I tried lifting up the door and slamming...I won't bore you with the details. The latch portion rotates correctly but does not appear to "lock" in place. When I work the latch with the door open it does lock into position.

Am I most likely looking at a problem it the latch, sagging door or inside door release assembly?

Thanks for the help,

Thanks,

Mike

If you're lucky, maybe it just needs some lubrication to the latch workings. I bet if you remove the inner door panel, you'll be able to locate the problem.

Is this Don Foster periodic pour a bottle of tranny fluid over eveything and let it seep out the drain holes technique? I don't want to open the skin here at work so I wil check it out tonight.

Thanks

Mike

Actually, I'd just turn up the stereo.

But if that didn't help, I'd lube the hell outta the latch mechanism. 10-W40, not ATF, and after saturating the mechanism I'd blast it with the air gun to push the oil into the crevices. And then I'd clean my glasses. And wipe up all the oil dripping on the garage floor.

Also, the external latch—on the door—can be removed (the screws thread into the internal mechanism), disassembled, and cleaned 'n lubed.

Don Foster (near Cape Cod, MA)

> Actually, I'd just turn up the stereo.

Touche

> But if that didn't help, I'd lube the hell outta the latch mechanism.

> 10-W40, not ATF, and after saturating the mechanism I'd blast it with

> the air gun to push the oil into the crevices. And then I'd clean my

> glasses. And wipe up all the oil dripping on the garage floor.

For some reason I thought you were the who reccomended the bottle of ATF every couple of years

> Also, the external latch—on the door—can be removed (the

> screws thread into the internal mechanism), disassembled, and cleaned

> 'n lubed.

Or you could just swap it with a woring one off the parts car (if you were lazy).

Onkel Udo

"...Touche..."

Yep. For years friends have called me touched.

"...thought you were the who reccomended the bottle of ATF every couple of years..."

Yes, in the tranny 'n power steering.

"...just swap it with a woring one off the parts car (if you were lazy)..."

Yes, but removing (and reinstalling) one latch is less unscrewing than two latches. If I took a used latch off a parts car, I'd clean 'n lube it before use......all of 30 seconds work....

Don Foster (near Cape Cod, MA)

I had something a little less messy in mind. That sounds like a great rust inhibitor though.

Mike,

It's hard to say exactly what you door problem is ... but when my son's 240 Turbo pass. door refused to close and stay closed ... I swapped it's door latch with one from my dead 80 240DL. As I recall it was a quick fix ... just a couple of allen head bolts holding the latch to the door. Worked like a charm. If you have access to a spare latch I'd try that first. As I recall it took about five minutes to make the repair. I did put the Turbo latch onto the donor just to see what would happen ... it wouldn't close and latch ... so in this case that was obviously the problem. You might be able to repair the latch but if you can find a replacement, I'd go with that and save yourself some time and trouble.

I have a spare at the house, so I will swap it tonight.

Thanks