Now its even worse

[ob1]

Goodday all

Defender 110 Hard top 1997

It has been a while, since the problem started. Left front door sometimes refuse to unlock using either key, or from the inside. After some swearing and fighting, it will open. It seldom hapened in the beginning, but frequency became more, until it was too annoying to ignore

I removed the trim, all the connecting rods seem to be fine with no play. Then proceeded to remove the latch, following the instruction manuel (the genuine workshop manuel, not Hayns). There were two mishaps, one was when my brother stripped the head of one of the three screws holding the latch. (one of those 6point star headed ones, dont know the name) Had to drill the head off, and use a bit of hammering. Got it out. Same happened to one of the screws fixing the window sliding track to the door, a lot less hassle.

Installed a used part, could not find a new one over easter, all suppliers closed. Tested the thing before installing, working fine. After installing tested the door, the latch did not grab the pin in the body. Realised that the door was a bit bent due to hammering the stripped screw out, fixed it. I am positive its 99% same as before. The lock now worked good, only differance is you need a bit more violence to get it closed to second locking position.

Two days later, low and behold (afer trim was replaced %@# ) the exact origional problem popped its annoying head out again. Secondly the door only close to first locking position. If I take the latch back to the second locking position, and re open it with the door handle, it goes to second lock when I close the door.

Tried moving the pin without adapting the holes in the bodywork, dont like doing that.

Any help welcome,

Thanks

[western]

have you lubricated the latch mechanism, they don't like being dry

[pope-on-a-rope]

Spent 3 hours on friday with exactly the same problem. Found that if you push the locking button on the inside of the door down and then shut the door it would not open it again. (Normally you need to hold the outside button in otherwise the button pops up again - it wasn't) . Latch seemed to work fine off the vehicle but not when reassembled in door. After I started to loose the will to live having taken the dam thing out again and again resorted to replacing the latch mechanism completely. All is now well For the sake of £30 or so it's not worth the grief of using a second hand one.