Repairing a door lock mechanism.

Some of you may remember I changed the passenger side door locking mechanism some time ago, as it was doing the grindy, whirry thing. The noise can sound like a machine gun too.

I did an autopsy on it and found that a small plastic shaft had snapped off from the main housing, allowing a pawl to float free and not engage properly.



I had threatened at the time to repair it, but never really got around to it.

Well, I did an autopsy on the driver’s side when I removed it yesterday and found exactly the same fault. While I was in the mood I decided to fix this one (will fix the passenger one at a later date).

The plan was to fit a new shaft to replace the snapped one. Obviously gluing the old one back in place would not last 2 minutes. I toyed with the idea of drilling though the case and fitting a rivet of the correct size, but this had its problems (could damage the plastic, would expand when riveted in place and be too wide for the pawl). So I decided to narrow the plain shank of a screw and cut to size (8mm in length - 5mm of old shaft + 3mm depth of case). To give extra support and strength I welded a square of metal to one end.

I then drilled out the location of where the shaft used to be



I then pushed the new shaft though the casing and Araldited it to the outside of the case.



With the new shaft in place



I could refit the pawl



Reassemble the mechanism and mechanically test the levers.



All seems OK, but I will have to wait until I need a lock change again to try it out fully.

This may not be the same as all failures experienced by F/TF owners, but I have had 2 now and both have been the same. As you can see, a little hobbying and you can save yourself around £40 on ebay.

again a great how-to! Thanks a million!