67townsedan

The rear passenger side door doesn't open on my 67 4 door cutlass and I'm wondering what the easiest way to get it open might be. The outside button doesn't feel like it does anything when pressed and the inside lever is almost the same. The lock also does not seem to work as it doesn't seem to click into the locked or unlocked position.

I looked down in the door and can't see what's wrong. Am I going to have to take the door panel off from the inside if that's even possible? Any ideas where else to start?

cutlassjoe

That same thing happened to my 72' last year. If I remember correctly the latch got jammed up I had to use a coat hanger down the side of the door to unjamb it. Wait and see what other responses you get, there may be an easier way to fix this.

lshlsh2

My guess is you are going to have to take off the door panel. Problem is to get it off easily the door has to be open. catch-22

Give some time hopefully someone has some magic info that I don't know.
Larry

67townsedan

Thanks for the replies. I will wait and see if anyone else has any other ideas before I start mangling it with a coat hanger or pulling the panel off. I haven't done anything yet and don't want to make it worse if there is an easier way.

76Supreme455

Hey 67townsedan, if you would like, give me a call tonight or this weekend sometime at (615) 778-1460 and I can see if one of our local Olds club guys has any ideas for you or could help you out. I think we might have several who live fairly close to you.

Alan

rocketraider

Let me know what you find. My 76 Ninety Eight left rear door has been like that for years. Body guy was talking about taking the door off its hinges.

That might not be a bad option, just don't want to mangle the power window and lock wiring. I have a feeling it's related to that lock solenoid anyway.

67townsedan

I have those ole fashioned crank windows in my car so no worries about the power windows for me.

Funny I had a friend of mine whose daughter came home and was telling them about this new feature they saw in a friends car where they had to crank the window by hand and thought it was sooo cool. Guess we are all spoiled by new cars now.

I also had my son-in-law ask me what that funny button was on the floor....hahaha! Don't rememeber when they stopped putting the high beam control there but I thought it was the best place for it and hated the newer cars that had it on the column.

greenslade

Take door off hinges?Wouldn't you have to remove the fender to remove hinges and you would still have to release the latch to remove the door.Coat hanger sounds like best option,use a plastic coated one.

67townsedan

Well the strangest thing just happened. I went out to my garage with flashlight in hand and I was shining it down into the door and working the door handles and the lock just clicked. Then the door opened right up! I locked it and unlocked it and it seemed to work just fine when it felt like it was stuck before. Now the door opens and closes perfectly from the inside and out and the lock works as well.

I swear I'd think I was a complete moron if the guy I bought it from wasn't able to open it and neither were 2-3 other people that looked at the car...lol.

I guess I should take the door panel off at some point to take a look but it is fixed...I guess...for now.

MBrown

hey, I have a '71 coupe that the driver's kept doing that. I finally got it open(luckily i am working on it so the door panels were off). There is a circular spring on the door latch at the top that was missing on mine. Comparing it to the passenger side is how I figured it out, i bought a new latch because I couldnt find just the spring. If you look at a picture you can see the spring at the top of the latch.

HTH,
Mark

oldcutlass

You might take the door panel off and lubricate the sticking parts.

jaunty75

As an aside to this thread, I think there were two main reasons why the high-beam switch was moved.

First, when on the floor, it's subject to moisture whenever anyone gets in the car with wet shoes or boots from snow or rain. I know I had to replace more than one of those foot switches over the years due to corrosion.

Second, the high-beams now also have the "flash to pass" safety feature, which gives a flash of the brights when the stalk is pulled or pushed momentarily. This would have been difficult to implement on a foot-controlled switch. Of course, they could have put a separate flash-to-pass lever on the column, but if they're going to do that, why not just move the entire high-beam control to the column and have it all in one place.


I think the floor-mounted high-beam switch was a leftover from the days when more of a car's functions were controlled by foot. At one time, cars were started by pushing on a floor button with your foot. Of course, manual transmissions and their associated clutch pedals were foot-controlled.

67townsedan

LOL...revived a 4 year old thread. I still have this car and I have not had any problems with the door sticking since it just "broke" free. It's been laid up in the garage for a while but I haven't had any more problems with the lock sticking. I never even took the door panel off.

Professur

Since MBrown has played Dr. Frank, I'll just mention that the floor mounted high beam switch was a pain in the *** when driving through mountains with a clutch. Going up a hill and having to downshift just as someone comes over the top straight into your highs and you don't have enough feet to drop them ... not fun for anyone involved.