I aquired a 84 Z28 and have started the rebuilding of this car. I bought the AndyZ28 hinge pin system as the doors sagged horribly. Installed on the drivers door and was checking alignment. Door closed and will not open. I am assuming the latch is bad, but now I cant even open the door to replace it. Is there some kinda trick to make this latch open ? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

 

remove the fender well cover on the drivers side and you can get to the bolts for the door hinge. I believe they are 1/2 ''

 

I have the skins off and have access to the latch on the inside of the door but cannot seem to manipulate it to open. I would really hate to pull the fenders off of it. Is it possible to unbolt the striker from inside under the speaker ?

Thanks

 

I think you miss understood. You only need to take the plastic inner fender conver off. Not the fender itself.

 

Paint her orange and climb throught the windows.

 

Maybe the door is locked.Is the linkage moving when you pull the handle?Could also be its just jambed now that the door is not sagging.Try pushing from inside while pulling on the inner handle.

You cant remove the striker from behind the jamb.There's no way to grab it.It may be possible to access it thru the latch.Since you have the skins removed.

 

the linkage is broken and the latch is wrapped around the striker. I fiddled with it for about an hour yesterday with no success. I am thinking since I can get to the latch from the inside of the door that I am going to dissasemble it with a dremel and a cutoff wheel and order a replacement latch.

 

There is a lever that the lock rod slips into. Just flick the lever and unlock the door. I had same problem, once I figured out which lever I was able to open the door. One lever for door handle,one for lock. The lock lever has two holes, manual lock rod, other hole for power lock rod.

 

I have moved the lock and handle rods to no avail. This latch is completely non funtional. I didn't know if there was a lever internal to the latch that could be forced with a screwdriver of something, but I cannot see any. I will mess with it a little more, but I can cut off the inside of the latch with dremel and manually try to disassemble it

 

Won't help. If you do that it may never open. There are 3 screws holding everything inplace. They go in from the outside of the door. You have to get the lever to move, it will release the spring holding the piece wrapping around door striker pin. Look at how the other door works, this way you are not working blind. If it is locked you cannot move the lever to open the door latch.

 

So, after looking at the mechanics behind this latch (Which is totally non-functional) I found the internal lever that toggles the latch mechanism. If you get a small screwdriver and lift upward the toggle will release and you can open any door. Thanks for your help everyone !!!

 

Was the spring broken? That was my first thought for it not working.

 

The spring was not broken, but it was in pretty bad shape. All of the black plastic material internal to the latch was all buggered up internally as well. I ordered a replacement latch yesterday for $55.00 including replacement rods and shipping and it should be here first part of next week.