then there's the diesel fuel and dexron and toe nail polish remover (finger nail polish remover is too weak)...

At long last the door is open!

First some pictures... not rocket science but it would have helped me so maybe it will help someone else:

The pivot part that utimately opens the door. Although hard to reach this *can* be manually lifted while it's in the door and all rods are still attached whether it is in the locked or unlocked position (although it is easier in the locked position)


Door in the unlocked position (notice the mechanism attached to the rods(door handles) is under the latch opening part so when the handle is pulled it pushes up on the pivot latch to free the door)


Door in the locked position (Notice the mechanism attached to the rods is NOT under the door latch and will not open the door.



I believe what happened in my case is that this rod attached to the door lock mechanism with the white plastic part:

that attaches to this plunger device that I really do not know what use it serves other than adding friction:


slipped (it is attached via a white plastic threaded part that ties it to the other rods) and stuck in a postion that forced the door in a locked position. no amount of manually pulling on the door handle rods OR manually operating the mechanism that pushes up on the door latch helped because it was disengaged from the door latch. Once I manually lifted the door latch with my fingers it popped right open!

Again, easy if I KNEW to do that but it is difficult to see in my previous pictures while it is in the door and isn't obvious to me in the diagram.

I re-ajusted the parts as I put them back in and put a little lock-tight on the white plastic adjustment threaded part (hopefully that is ok)...

Thanks for all the responses!

I believe that is your door lock actuator motor (part #68501 in the diagram several posts above). Do you have a Gate Lock/Unlock switch on the dash? If so, it should be causing that motor to move the lever one direction or the other. If nothing happens when you click the switch I would suspect your switch contacts are corroded. You can remove the switch and carefully clean them up with an emery board or fine grit sandpaper.

Eric W.

Wow... I didn't *think* I had an electric door lock.... I'll have to check.

Thanks!

If you look at your panel of switches from left to right, your rear gate lock switch shoule be the second switch in from the left.