As the title says. I angrilly managed to get some of the door panel off to see that all linkage between the inside/outside handles and lock mechanisms are intact. There are no rods laying in the bottom of the door, there is a broken, generic piece of plastic in the bottom of the door. I am not sure if that is part of the problem or remanants of another. In any case, by feel, I traced the inside/outside door opening rods to a piece of metal on a pivot, It doesn't seem to connect to the latch anymore but I imagine it must have at some point. I also felt around for a lever on the latch to open it. I could not. i will try again tomorrow with a haynes manual. But in the meantime, Could somebody tell me what specifically is broken, and how the door can be opened? I'm never letting anybody close my doors again.

That piece of plastic is a clip that holds the rod in the mechanism just get a new one at a parts store they break all the time and I would bet that it was broken long before said idiot slammed your door I would imagine when he slammed the door he jarred the rod loose thus your not opening issue. Put the rod back in the hole and slide the clip on, easy day.

I am familiar with the piece you are talking about. That is not what I found at the bottom of the door. Additionally, i could not find a rod that attaches to the latch. I'm sure the diagrams will be helpful when I try to fix it. For reference, attached is a rough MSpaint sketch of what the piece looked like. It was a black solid piece of plastic.

that broken piece you posted a pic of is more than likely the window stopper. It goes on the bottom of a bracket to stop the window from going down to far. With it broken like that it can go down below the window felt attachment points and hit the screws when the window goes up, causing little chips along the top edge.

GM doors are notorious for this type of thing I spent 6 hours trying to get the rod back into it's latch after it fell out on my Cutlass I would bet it's still attached somewhere in the mechanism but it may be hard to see as it probably laying up against another rod. Good luck getting it fixed I know how frustrating it can be!

Thank you for your replies. I inspected the door today, it is worse than I thought. All of the rods are attached correctly, as confirmed by the diagram I had, what made sense, and the fact that there were no hanging or loose parts on the bottom of the door.

I bypassed the rods and manually pushed down on the lever circled in the picture, which is supposed to allow the door to open. It did not budge. I switched the locking position back and forth with no luck.

By the way, the door was slammed hard enough to cause the dome light to come back on for a split second after it went off. I think the door bounced back(hence the dome light going on) and jammed or broke an internal latch piece.

Unless somebody has done this before and knows a better solution I will do the following tomorrow:

Take a dremmel tool and cut a hole on the inside of the latch large enough so that I can unscrew the striker bolt, which is currently visible, and pull it through the latch.

I will then open the door, remove the latch, and try to get it to function properly again, if not, it will be replaced.

I would rather solve this problem in a less obtrusive way. If anybody has ideas, please suggest them. If not, I will let you know if my plan works, so that everyone will benefit from the experience.

Well, the plan worked. I was able to determine that the locking mechanism, internal to the hinge had jammed, causing it to stay locked, even when the locking rod was moved to unlock. Once i got the bolt through, the tension in the latch was relieved and it started functioning normally again.

man there is nothing i hate more than some one slamming my doors like the cars a pile of crap. my door close the same as they did when it rolled off the line and people still slam them or grab the glass to close the door.