Door stuck shut.

[Mr Bridgeport]

Hi, new here but it looks to be a great forum. I have a 1997 F250 deisel with 251K miles and now I'm starting to run into little but annoying troubles. The latest is a broken drivers side door latch. Both the outside and inside handles feel like they are disconnected from the latch. It has power locks and the solenoid seems to work. I took the door panel off the passenger door and fabricated a rod that would push down on the lever to open the door on the latch. Tried it on the drivers side door and it does nothing. Is there a way to get the door open with out cutting through the sheet metal? I can't even get the door panel off. Looks like I'm in a catch 22 situation, need to open the door to get the panel off to fix the latch. Thanks in advance.
Bill

 

[Crumm]

to the site.

I am not sure how to solve your problem but if it comes to it I think I would cut through the plastic door panel before I cut through the sheet metal. I am sure the inner panel would be cheaper than the outer skin. Hopefully someone else will have a idea on how to get it open so it doesn't come to that.

 

[95_stroker]

If you roll the window down and take the weather strip off can you get a coat hanger in there to hook the linkage?

 

[Dogman]

It sound like what happen to are company F-150, the latch was broken. Your going to have to pull the door panel off from the inside and play with the latch. Good luck!!

 

[95_stroker]

How do you pull the panel with the door shut?

 

[dpantazis]

Bill-
glad to see you made it over here! These boys will help you out.

dennis

 

[platinum01]

Sorry to hear about your problem Good luck on fixin it. Welcome to SDD.com

 

[94f450sd]

keep playing with the door lock.lock it and unlock it.while doing this keep trying to open it from the inside.my passengers door does it all the time.once i get it open its fine till somebody locks it again.

 

[Crumm]

I have been thinking about this and think I might have come up with a idea if your F250 happens to be a Crewcab. Very few 97' F250 trucks were crewcabs, is yours?

If it is a Crewcab open the rear door and look at the striker pin for the front door. You will see the threaded end of it sticking through a rectangular gold colored piece of small channel iron. I think if you take a small cut-off wheel and make a slot in the end of the threaded striker pin you may be able to turn it with a large flat blade screwdriver. If you can get it to turn get a large Phillips and unscrew all three screws that hold the latch mechanism in the door(you can get to them with the rear door open). Once the latch is free continue unscrewing the striker pin until the pin and latch falls into the door. The door should then come right open with no latch and you can then take the panel off and fix the whole thing. This will not work unless it is a Crewcab and it depends on if you can get the striker pin broke loose with a large screwdriver. I know when turning the pin from the proper side using a torx bit it takes a quite bit of force and sometimes a impact driver to get them broke loose. A little penetrating oil on the pin threads after you make a slot in it may help. Might not hurt to make sure the latch will go into the door far enough to free the pin by pulling the passenger side off first(with the door open). Would hate to make the problem worse. Good luck...

 

[94f450sd]

crummy,good idea but the latch wont fall into the door.but it may move enough to get the door open if he does what you said.then he can get the panel off and replace the latch