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.Fixing the Door Lock..................... |
.1999 Ford Ranger |
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I have a 1999 Ford Ranger cleverly named "Trucky." Most of the time I like it and it likes me, but one day the driver's door lock just quit working. I'd turn the key and nothing would happen. There was no resistance; it was like turning an air key. I had a choice: fix it myself or pay someone to fix it. I figured the worst I could do was completely ruin the driver's door and I'd have to crawl over from the passenger's side to get into the driver's position. In that case, I'd still end up taking the truck to the shop anyways so why not try to fix it myself first? A little bit more ruined than something that was already ruined is still ruined: 0 + 0 = 0. Simple math. I went to get my tool tray and when I came back out I found Chris already starting to undo the screws holding on the armrest (which also housed the electronic controls). Now there's one thing that someone with a Bachelors of Science can't stand, and that is to let someone with a Bachelor of Arts tear something mechanical apart. It's sort of like handing a crying baby over to a stoned teenager and telling him to take good care of it. Maybe it'll turn out ok and maybe it won't. Fearing for the safety of the Ranger, Chris annointed himself point-man on the project. Fully anticipating a few hours of floundering solo while I tried to resolve the problem, there was no way I was going to dissuade him from his decision. |
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Two external screws held on the armrest. Once we got those off, we removed one more screw behind the armrest and another in the lower left corner, and then the entire door panel popped up and off. We slipped the armrest through the hole in the door panel and just left it dangling there; there was no need to disconnect any of the wires. Very simple. I now feel empowered to tear off any door interior. You should too. |
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The inside of the lock was attached to nothing. Fishing around in the bottom of the door, we found a circlip that had fallen off of something. That something was a weird looking little metal and plastic offset doo-dad that clipped onto the lock and also connected to the bar that pulled the door latch open and close. With that interface gone, the bar had just fallen away. That's why there was a light grinding noise when I rolled the window up and down; the bar was loose and free to bounce against whatever it wanted to. |
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Chris had tried to figure out how the piece went back on but got frustrated. He handed it to me and with the patience of a farm vet with two hands up a horse trying to deliver a colt, I slowly worked in the small confines without benefit of sight. After a few minutes Chris said he was going to tear apart the other door to see how it needed to be done, but I told him to hold off...the baby horse would surely come to mama. I finally fitted the odd piece and then felt the thin trough where the circlip needed to go. It took a while to seat the circlip, but when it finally clicked into place the lock was back to normal. Moral of this story? Moral 1: You'd be surprised at what you can do if you just try. Moral 2: Next time I think I'm buying a Toyota truck (partly because one of Trucky's head cracked with only around 50,000 miles on it!). |
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