FIRST: thanks to all the good suggestions on how to free my closed driver's
side door..
i tried almost everything suggested in email:
>Have someone bounce his/her butt on the door...gently while you try to
>get it open.
didn't work (but was fun)..
>spray lubricant down in the door and down between the door and the
>jamb
also didn't work..
these three i didn't get to try:
1> use a coat hanger to fish around in the door and pull up on the handle
2>try jacking the car up and stressing the door to see if it frees up
3>remove the inside door panel. . . work the latch mechanism by hand
what worked:
i sprayed in some WD40 (the theory was the latch needed lube) and applied
the bouncing butt therapy and alternately push-door-in-while-pulling the
handle (theory being the striker had maybe canted out of true and was
binding)..
after applying lots of pushing, bouncing and bumping i was gonna get a coat
hanger...and peeked inside the door (though the slit the window goes up and
down in) with a flashlight and i saw i could watch the mechanism moving as i
pulled the door handle....then i saw the lock and decided to try the key
again (it had worked before) and i watched inside as i turned the key this
way and that, and pulled the handle after each key turn--well, it seemed to
me the mechanism was moving exactly the same travel each time...i was just
trying to figure out what to try next while i turned the key and watched
over and over and suddenly the door OPENED effortlessly..
i tell ya', i think this door is "locking itself" somehow..
there was a definite difference in the feel of the handle pull between when
it was "jammed" and when it opened easily..
hmmmmmm...
again, thanks to all who answered..
DenverD - A Texan in Denmark
65B # GHN3L/33680; engine 18V581-H193
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