The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Doors 51 Driver's Door Stuck

I recently got a 51 1/2 ton truck, but I cannot open the driver's side door. I assume that the lock is stuck, but I cannot figure out the mechanism on the inside of the door. Does anyone have an pictures and or advice to get the door open?

Andrew

The lock mechanism is fairly simple, from the inside the handle either locks or unlocks the latch. What happens when you pull the outter handle, assuming you have lever type handles? Or has someone changed it over to push button? I would spray some WD-40 around the latch area and give it a push pull/jerk ect. You may get lucky and it will pop open, good luck.

Has it ever opened since you got it? It could be anything from the latch not working properly to the door being so badly out of alignment that it's jammed shut.

Don't pull on it from the outside. From the inside, pull the door handle and bump the door real hard with your shoulder. If it still won't open get out your tools and get in there and figure it out.

Oh, and welcome to the wonderful world of old trucks... and stovebolt.com

You could unbolt the hinges from the doors from inside the cab. You'd to have some support in place so the door doesn't fall out but rather is removed in a controlled way.

Welcome to the Bolt! This is the place to be for any info or help on your truck.
It's good to see someone else from Pearland here. Now let's see some pictures!

I'm missing something... if he can't get the door open how is this going to help?

As I understand his question its not the door that is stuck, but the latch. Undoing the hinges at the very least will allow jiggling the latch and it may allow removing the door without operating the latch.

Those old latches don't hold all that great in the first place, it shouldn't be real hard to rattle the door off with the hinges unbolted.

But I'll admit I haven't tried this approach. Last time I had the problem I spent weeks spraying the latch with penetrating oil and eventually was able to operate it. I was in no hurry so it didn't really matter.

Don't you need the door open to get at the hinges?

The hinge straps are inside the door and removing the bolts will do almost nothing. I would suggest cutting the cardboard cover off the inside of the door to see if the remote handls is moving the lock. You can use the other door as the guide to how it works.

Anything you can do that increases the jiggle room at the latch improves the likelihood of getting it to release.

The original post reads.."but I cannot open the driver's side door.", so the hinges connot be accessed. The latch has to be addressed. If the truck has the cardboard cover on it, it needs to be removed. If the latch will not operate by way of both the inner remote handle and linkage, and the outer door handle, then there may be a serious problem with the latch, and it may need to be replaced. Get inside the door with a flashlight and your fingers. See if you can figure out, or force the latch to release. They are a simple mechanism. Good luck.

I usually have a 2 guy method, 1 holds the handle in the open position and also catches the door and the other on the inside using both feet with the bottom of your feet kick the door close as you can get to the latch area but not hard enough to start bending stuff.

I was in a similar pickle a LONG time ago as a young body man. I ended up pulling the seat from the passenger side (car not truck but should work the same) using access from the passenger side, pull the door trim panel then work on the guts of the door. Good luck.

Ummmm... why would you need to remove the seat remove the door trim panel?

Or am I missing something here?

More room to work and not stand on your head to get at the hard stuff.

I think we scared him off with all this technical stuff

Probably figured out the lock on his own. Or maybe he is stuck inside the truck.

I have been working on other projects and just listening to the responses. A couple of days after I posted this I started working on my '29 Model A. What started as a replacing of a radiator ended up as an engine rebuild. Anyway thanks for all of the responses.

Stick around. unlike most forum sites, we answer quick and sometimes even with good suggestions.

Yes, an unlike most other websites you manually have to check a box to get email notifications that there are responses to the thread.

Don't get me started on this one... :mad:

Well I finally got the door open. I have to turn the outside handle WAY past where I thought it needed to be turned to operate it now, but at least it opens.

Thanks for the help,

Andrew