driverside door will not open, have a little play in the door when i push the button in ,how can i get the door open so i can replace the latch? can see the latch ,i have no panels on the door or no door locks it`s a 67 two door coup :confused:

Since you have no interior door panels on and can access the release mechanism, try rolling up the window and pushing in the door release by hand. It may be that your push button is not going deep enough into the latch to release the catch.

MileHigh is correct- Most of my cars have had this problem... There is a rod that is attached behind the button- this pushes a lever inside the door to unlatch it- Over the years that rod gets Bent, so eventually it doesn't push the lever anymore.

Just getting in there with a pair of pliers you can bend it back to straight- or you can take the door handle off and then straighten the rod on an anvil or something with a hammer.

no luck , tried both rods and it`s still not opening :(

Keith. I know the latch has a fairly 'open' structure but I can't remember exactly how the latch works. I can only advise the follwing.

Remove the latch from the other door (or find a spare one of course). Look carefully how the latch works internally. There are some holes in the body that will show you. With that knowledge you must be able to open the faulty one. I am almost sure some spring broke.

As a last resort you could try to determine whether the head of the striker bolt can pass through the latch. If it will determine the position of the striker bolt in locked condition. Drill a 1/2 (?) inch hole and use an Allen wrench to loosen up the bolt.

Hope this helps.

Rob

a friend has and extra so i will look at his to see how it works graemlins/thumbsup.gif

First, make sure the door lock isn't stuck and the door is really locked causing it not to open. I don't know if you can see the door lock mech with the latch in the door or not, but see either photo for location.

I have two photos of a passenger side latch that I mirrored to look like the drivers side latch.

Photo #1 (http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/396guy/doorlatch1.jpg)

Photo #2 (http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/396guy/doorlatch2.jpg)

The trick is to first try and pull the door latch from the inside just like the rod from the handle would. See Photo #1. This lever MUST be able to depress the spring loaded release lever.

Against the outside of the door portion of the latch is a long flat bar that the door handle button depresses to open the latch. You might be able to pull the top portion of this towards the inside of the car (like the button would) to unlatch the door. See photo #2.

Good luck with getting the door open. Let me know how you did, I'm really interested in the outcome. I removed my door handles and use both the inside door pull and electric solenoids attached by steel cable instead of the rod to open the latch. My fear is that someday the cable(s) might break or work loose and I'll have to do the same thing.

still working on it , when i finally get it (i hope) i`ll post how i did it....... dynamite should do think trick :eek:

should read the trick, where i think is a mystery like my door :D