Opening Door for Door Lock

[David13]

I'm trying to open the passenger side front door to find out why the switch and remote won't lock the passenger front door. I've checked the fuse, and found power to the side of the fuse, and the window works and all the other locks work, but not this one.

I have seen all the videos and posts about how to do it. And it was all very helpful to a point.

The point being releasing the glass from the regulator.

I wonder why they didn't make the access hole smaller.

It's only tiny as is, rather than miniscule.

Anyway looking in there I have managed to find the hole in the glass. I think. But I can't figure out the tab to release the glass.

I am going to recruit a second pair of hands to help, to pull on raising the glass while I poke at the alleged "tab", which I guess has to be in there somewhere.

I have the full down on one push window there, which I thought was only for the driver's door, but no, the passenger gets that "feature" too. So I have to bump the switch to the up position to get the glass to move a tiny bit at a time.

I suppose in my good old junk yard days I could make a trip to the junkyard and find one to open up to see what the clip looks like.

Knowing that would help as then I'd have an idea where the tab is, what it looks like and where to push on it.

Any suggestions or photos of the plastic assembly?

Thanks
dc

 

[LibertyTC]

Wow that door panel is a real PITA.
This video shows how to release the plastic tab to release the glass & pull up to then secure it etc..hope this helps.

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[David13]

Thanks Liberty

I had seen that one. I still can't see what he is pushing on. I'm going to wait til I get a second set of hands, them on the glass and me trying to push the tab. It isn't at all clear in his video as to how he is pushing, or pushing to the side, or what, nor what he is pushing on. I have seen a lot of white plastic in there and pushed on all of it. Does one push back, or to the side? I have seen the plastic part that the glass supposedly rides on but I still can't see what part of it moves which way.

Maybe with other hands on the glass I can see something in there.

Thanks
dc

Door panels have always been a pain. One of the first ones I ever had to open was a '63 T Bird. That was back in the mid 60s. Window switch was out. I managed to get it, but no memory as to how long it took me.

 

[lfhoward]

There is a hole in the bottom of the glass that part of the white plastic regulator part (don’t know what to call it) goes through. There is a rectangular tab over that hole with a hook/tooth on it. Got to push/pull(?) the plastic tab back and get the tooth out from the hole in the glass in order to release it.

Hard to know if this description will make sense to you. It’s hard to describe even though I did this job once on mine.

The nice part is, the glass is easy to snap back into place once you put the regulator back after changing out the door lock actuator.

 

[lfhoward]

I also should say that the locking tab on the glass is only really accessible when the window is down. I think I was able to reach it from the speaker hole. (After you take off the inner door skin, you may want to reconnect the window switch to the wires to be able to move the window down.) Once you get the glass released from the regulator, manually slide it up and tape it up to keep it out of your way while you do the rest of the job. You won’t be able to access the door switch with the glass down.

 

[David13]

Thanks Howard

Yes, that gives me another new idea. That I may simply have to take out the speaker and go in to the outside of the glass.

I saw on one video that it just snaps back in for reassembly.

My other overnight thought was, put a magnifying glass over the hole and maybe I can see more detail in there.

I saw the glass at the bottom, or actually I think it's near bottom. It has to come up some to align the hole with the hole in the panel. And to allow the hands to grab onto it and pull it up.

I need to get 2 more hands over here and try both those ideas.

Thanks for your ideas.
dc

 

[David13]

Well a snow fall over night has delayed my 2nd set of hands til tomorrow.

I did manage to get the speaker out and feel behind the glass at low point. I can feel the connector and the tooth tab that has to release.

Tomorrow with the second set of hands, who understands the issue and the proceedure, I should be able either to get the tab out from behind the glass, or line it up with the hole and push it back from the front with a screw driver.

Thanks again for the ideas.

With the arm thru' the speaker hole and touching the thing allows me to know what it is back there that I'm dealing with. And how it has to move.
dc

 

[David13]

Well the first set of hands didn't work. So I got another set. And put him into the hole with the screw driver while I held the glass. He could see it but ended up not being able to release the tab.

It ended up looking like he was going to break something but he did say he was just raising the glass with the screw driver. We stopped as I didn't want him to break anything, but it gave me a good idea. Instead of just holding the glass, I should have pushed down on it. While he pushed up on the tab. I tried that myself, but now couldn't see the tab. I'm old, my eyes are not as good as they used to be.

So I just gave up for now and went to oil and filter. Which only took most of a day with the filter, and the front grill and the headlight on the filter.

Now on to other things.
dc

 

[purple_submariner]

Well the first set of hands didn't work. So I got another set. And put him into the hole with the ***** driver while I held the glass. He could see it but ended up not being able to release the tab.

It ended up looking like he was going to break something but he did say he was just raising the glass with the ***** driver. We stopped as I didn't want him to break anything, but it gave me a good idea. Instead of just holding the glass, I should have pushed down on it. While he pushed up on the tab. I tried that myself, but now couldn't see the tab. I'm old, my eyes are not as good as they used to be.

So I just gave up for now and went to oil and filter. Which only took most of a day with the filter, and the front grill and the headlight on the filter.

Now on to other things.
dc

I had to put a new driver's door regulator assembly in my '11 and the above video is spot on for releasing the window from the regulator. You have to get it in the right spot where you can see the tab holding the window on the regulator through the hole and then just put a straight screwdriver in the slot in the tab and push it back and then pull the window up. When I did mine, I was afraid I was going to break the tab or the glass because I had to push so hard. I did manage to do it by myself for what it's worth. I used blue painters tape to hold the window up while replacing the regulator. I double circled the tab in red in this pic.