Does anyone have any ideas on how to free the door up (at the bottom latch)? I've hosed it with PB penetrating lubricant, white lithium grease, and even tried some brake cleaner, not necessarily in that order..

I know the latch is stuck, but other than taking out the rubber plug and spraying stuff in there I can't figure out how to free it.
Anyone have any ideas? When I pull on the latch, the top unlatches and I don't think the problem is a broken wire to the lower latch.

Dave

 

hey same exact thing happend to me ha... ok so your gunna want to get a decent sized flat head screw driver, gallon of pbblaster and a friend...

spray a ton of the blaster though that hole onto the latch mechanism... let it soak for 20 mins and repeat for a good 2 hours... take the screw driver and with the driver door open, wedge the screw driver inside the door resting it on the sill... push down so you lift the door up and wiggle the screw driver... have your friend hold the latch open and just do hard pull after hard pull....

took me 2 days to do it but i got it open... after that clean up the latch with soap and water, then lubricate it to death... your also going to want to clean up the U that the latch hooks into...

 

lol my gf's mom's 01 exploders doors where all sticking shut, other then the drivers door (that was hard as hell to open). i had to hold the handles open and kick the living **** out of the inside of the door till it opened. then i soaked everything down with lithium grease and let it sit for about 10min and put more on it. after about 3min each of pulling the handles i closed and opened the doors about 30 times each.. works like brand new, now and my gf's mom likes me alot more..

 

Try pushing the door in and then pulling the handle. Ive seen alot of tailgate latches get stuck that way, push it in then yank the handle realy hard and it will usually pop it open. Then grease it down and work the latch with a screwdriver until its freed up.

 

dont brake it just yet!!! when my door jamed shut it was a simple fix. what you need to do is look inside the handle and make sure both cables are attached. does the top of the door release? or will neither latch release? if you have to i highly recomend pulling the latch off the door and making sure both the cables are still connected to the door. then if that fails, then try and pull the door off eh? good luck

 

Followup: After a couple of days of penetrating oil and White Lithium grease and no results, I decided to "get 'er done".. I climbed into the back (recess-where some real small people supposedly can sit) geez, and laid down, put my feet on the door and told the wife to jank the latch on the count of "three". Well, when she pulled, I kicked, and open it did. I needed to sand the latch part with the hole in it attached to the floor, and a little inside the latch. Apparently the rust held it tight. It's opening now, and I'll be opening it a lot from now on.

 

glad you got it fixed

 

i could see you doing that and when you kick the door it hits her in the face

 

i slammed into our wall when mine came open because i was using all my weight lol...

 

Yup, that would have turned into a "situation!".