Door mech stuck

[JIMMYRIG]

My door latch is stuck and will not open from either inside or outside the truck on the drivers side. I’ve pulled the door panel off and manually tried prying the latch open. It won’t budge. Any suggestions before I saw my door off? 

[eaglescout526]

It’s not locked right?

[JIMMYRIG]

I’ve both unlocked from the outside and pulled the lock linkage arm from the inside and from what I can tell it’s unlocked.

 

[eaglescout526]

Just making sure :)

 

Since you pulled off the door panel and what not, are any of the clips broken? Rods not hooked to where they need to to get it open? 

 

Does anything move freely on the latch itself? All the linkage or is something binding too?

[JIMMYRIG]

All the plastic clips are intact and inside lock and handle rods are connected. I’m prying on the latch itself and it won’t move, however the button on the outside will push in. This all started because the other day the inside handle stopped working so I pulled the panel off today to try to repair. I was unsuccessful so I put it all back and drove to work to find now that both inside and outside handles don’t work.

[eaglescout526]

Hmmmm that’s really odd. I wonder if something internal to the latch broke. 

This is hell of a pickle to be in. 
 

Button on the outside will almost always push in unless there is binding. 
 

And you have tried both pushing the button outside and pulling open the door and pulling the handle inside to push the door open? 
 

Maybe need a sacrificial..I mean a helper on the outside to push the button on the handle while you kick the door to force it open. 

I feel it should free up with some force so long nothing is binding and where all the rods connect move. 

[M.T.Hands]

Mine were doing some weird stuff, locking, not locking, and the key cylinders were in terrible shape, but the biggest thing (IMO) was when I took the door latches out to clean the 35 year old grease out was that there is a "coating" on the latch mechanism, looks like plastic/delrin type coating that has basically disintegrated, right or wrong, I took picks and dug all that junk out, now locks and everything seem to be functioning properly, and doors still seem "tight", the key cyl's are better after cleanup, PS is fine, drivers side, I'm still investigating on a better option, I ordered new lock cylinders from carparts.com that were supposed to be a direct fit, but couldn't make them work out

[JZLAJeep]

13 hours ago, DLYMANCH said:

My door latch is stuck and will not open from either inside or outside the truck on the drivers side. I’ve pulled the door panel off and manually tried prying the latch open. It won’t budge. Any suggestions before I saw my door off? 

And I'm guessing this is the drivers door? An introvert may consider a stuck passenger door a feature. 

[gogmorgo]

Sometimes latches won’t release if there’s pressure on them. Have you tried pushing inwards on the door?

[Eagle_SX4]

Not sure if this will help or not but when I took my doors apart to paint them I noted where all the rods went on the latch. Here is the pic

[JIMMYRIG]

Thanks, thats a big help. It's a bit difficult to get a good view of whats going on with the latch since I have to lay across the seats and console but ill keep messing with it. 

[JIMMYRIG]

7 hours ago, gogmorgo said:

Sometimes latches won’t release if there’s pressure on them. Have you tried pushing inwards on the door?

Yeah applying pressure from the outside and still not getting anywhere. Now the button on the outside doesn't have any resistance to it when I push. It almost feels like when you push the button when the doors locked

[ghetdjc320]

Try flipping the lever where the electric door solenoid would go (it would sit below the door latch mechanism and used a short pushrod). You need to try to flip that existing latch mechanism either to the locked or the unlocked position a few times. 

[Pete M]

I've had success by pushing the lock for the inside and outside simultaneously.  sometimes you need to lock-unlock-lock-unlock a few times.  then doing the same for the open door function by actuating inside and outside simultaneously.

[JIMMYRIG]

Update: finally got door open. Latch was in shambles, idk what happened to the internals but I was able to push really hard on the door from the outside to loosen up any tension and then slide a screwdriver through this tiny little window on the latch. It’s pretty much only visible if you are laying on your side in the truck with your head pressed up against the door ,and the interior panel pulled off of course. I’ll send a pic when i pull the latch. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy… climbing in and out from the passenger side over the bolsters of my buckets and over the center console every day for over a week was a pain. Thank god I take yoga!! Appreciate everyone’s help

[ghetdjc320]

5 hours ago, JIMMYRIG said:

Update: finally got door open. Latch was in shambles, idk what happened to the internals but I was able to push really hard on the door from the outside to loosen up any tension and then slide a screwdriver through this tiny little window on the latch. It’s pretty much only visible if you are laying on your side in the truck with your head pressed up against the door ,and the interior panel pulled off of course. I’ll send a pic when i pull the latch. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy… climbing in and out from the passenger side over the bolsters of my buckets and over the center console every day for over a week was a pain. Thank god I take yoga!! Appreciate everyone’s help

Glad you got it fixed! I know how frustrating those mechanisms can be. Had that happen to my TJ a few years back as I was getting in the Jeep to leave.