door latch spring

[wendleburger]

Hello wendleburger,

If you are still out there, we'd be interested in pictures of the conversion, especially of the linkage between the new latches and the outer door handle.

Thanks in advance!

This was just a "use what's on hand" conversion, but worked really well. There is a piece of 5/8" plate welded into the opening in the jamb that the striker is screwed into. This opening used to house the alignment wedge.

The door mechanisms just slip into the door cavity and bolt up to the panels that I made to house them.

The mechanisms were from a 1970's Holden, quite possibly a Chevy of the same age would have the exact same mechanisms.

I don't have any pics of the rods, but they are just 1/4" threaded rod with female threaded heim joints on the ends. The "axle" on the back of the handle is cut off short and has a piece of 1/8" steel shaped like a cam lobe welded onto it. The end of this lobe has a hole to bolt the heim joint to.

I haven't installed the key locks as yet, but plan on using the same hardware to make up the rods.

I'm sure there is neater conversions out there. These are just safe, strong and free

[Desotodav]

I was just doing a little research on door locks and came across this post. I'm about to head off to our car/truck club Christmas party and wasn't sure if my door locks were working as I've never had to lock the truck before. I will be at a venue later today which is some distance from my truck, so locking it would be preferred.

I find that my left side door will lock fine with the key. The lock mechanism springs in both doors seem to have stretched or sagged and will not return either of the handles to the horizontal position (as shown in attached pic). Am I correct in assuming that these small lock springs cause the handle to rest in the the horizontal position? Would this cause the doors to lock automatically each time the door is closed? I am thinking that if this is the case, I might try to tighten the springs with a 360° rotation (if possible)???

Hank: Did you have any luck having springs made over there? I know that my current Spring Maker only works with rounded spring steel, but I also know that he enjoys a challenge! I recall asking him previously about similar springs, but maybe I wasn't persuasive enough at the time!!! I would need to make sure that our springs are the same here in Oz as yours over there. I should have a few more of these springs down at the shed. I'll drop down there tomorrow and have a look.

Desotodav

[Merle Coggins]

The lock on the outside of the door doesn't move the handle on the inside of the door. To lock the driver's side door you turn the handle up (horizontal) with the door closed and it will be locked from the outside. Then slide out the passenger side, close the door, and lock it with your key. If you try to lock the door with the inside handle, then close the door, the handle will pop out of the locked posiion and the door will be unlocked. That way you can't accidently lock yourself out.

Merle

[Desotodav]

Thanks for the reply Merle. It looks like I'll have to have a closer look at my locking mechanism/s.

Desotodav

[Desotodav]

Well I found the culprit for my door locking problem. It turned out that my remote door mechanism did not have the spring required to raise the internal door handle and activate the door lock. I rectified the problem by installing one of my spare mechanisms (which still had the spring attached). I can only assume that the spring was lost during the zinc-plating stage. Now I just have to have look to see if the left side door has the same issue.

Desotodav

[HanksB3B]

Since you guys in OZ drive on the wrong side of the road, mount your steering wheels on the passenger side of the vehicle, and enter/exit on the wrong side, the good news is what ends up being your passenger side door here in the US is the drivers side, so chances are the springs on that door are least used by you mates and most used by us guys here in the states. So an international swap of US passenger door lock mechanisms in exchange for AU passenger side doors would work out well.

Actually these springs are extremely difficult, if not impossible to find.

Hank