Stuck Rear Door Lock Barrel

[lavandism]

Hello everyone,
long time lurker here and the proud owner of 1.4 AUA (my first car!), in Silver Sea like the majority of petrol A2s in Italy are.

I've recently assigned myself to the task of changing the rear right door lock, with a desire to do so without detaching the window frame, but upon arriving to the point where one has to detach the door handle lock barrel to free up the space to disconnect the handle cable, I've encounter an unexpected resistance from the barrel. Something that supposedly should be done with bare hands in a matter of seconds, is still unresolved 3 hrs later.

I have undone the T20 bolt (and have noticed its lightness, as if it has been undone already), but the lock barrel still doesn't move. The external cap has come off, but the metal bit is stuck. I've tried to lube the inbetweens, to move the lock sideways, to pinch it with a crewdriver, to bump it with a rubber hammer and to check inside if something could be holding it - photo attached / nbut have no resolution whatsoever. Maybe anybody will have some leads by looking at these?

From the forum I know that some of these locks stuck a bit due to gunk build-up, but that must be some highly adhesive oil and water resistant dirt in my case then. My suspicion is that maybe the T20 bolt frame got bent somehow and now grips the barrel, but cannot confirm that.

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[audifan]

No lock barrel in the rear doors.

All you need to do is unscrew the bolt you access through the edge if the door frame until is starts to get tight. This releases the rear of the door handle so that it comes outwards a little. Look on the now exposed rear of the handle and you will see the block securing the exterior handle cable. Pop this off with a pick.

The rear locks require the door sub frame removed.

 

[Proghound]

If the second picture was taken from inside the car, there's a grub screw from the door frame that you can see coming in from the right of the picture. The head is behind the rubber seal that runs round the circumference of the door.

 

[lavandism]

No lock barrel in the rear doors.

All you need to do is unscrew the bolt you access through the edge if the door frame until is starts to get tight. This releases the rear of the door handle so that it comes outwards a little. Look on the now exposed rear of the handle and you will see the block securing the exterior handle cable. Pop this off with a pick.

The rear locks require the door sub frame removed.

Thank you for taking the time to help. That’s exactly what I’ve done, the screw is at maximum left position, yet the rear of the handle (not the lockable barrel, but the empty cylinder, indeed) is still stuck.

As for the subframe, there were replies to various threads about door lock where some people claimed to have done it with subframe attached what gave me hope

 

[lavandism]

If the second picture was taken from inside the car, there's a grub screw from the door frame that you can see coming in from the right of the picture. The head is behind the rubber seal that runs round the circumference of the door.

Thank you, Proghound! Are you referring to the T20 one that has be undone but not unscrewed completely (the one on the right to the cylinder, seen on the image), or there’s another screw that I’ve missed?

 

[Proghound]

No, it was that one I was thinking of. Sorry, I'm stumped now!

 

[audifan]

As you loosen that screw / bolt the handle rear edge comes out. if it does not then either the screw has been over tightened or loosened too far and the threads have been damaged.

Try carefully tightening the screw until you feel resistance, then slowly loosen it and very gently pull on the rear of the handle while wiggling the "lock"

 

[audifan]

You can also try once the screw has been loosened off to gently push the "lock" from the inside as I suppose someone may have glued it in for whatever reason.

 

[ThomasDitlev]

You don't need to take the frame out to remove the lock mechanism!

 

[lavandism]

You can also try once the screw has been loosened off to gently push the "lock" from the inside as I suppose someone may have glued it in for whatever reason.

Tried that with a gentle rubber hammer hit to no success… but I think you are right with the idea of an overloosened screw as the rear edge didn’t pop upon unscrewing, as you described. It has been already loose when I started unscrewing it. Thank you for a suggestion, I will try to gently screw it back in.

Even so, I’m not sure the door has been ever opened — the foam insert still has adhesive that sticked it to the lock, something I wouldn’t expect to be present in case of preceding service.

Is it possible to take off the handle cable with a cylinder present, or that’s too painful?

 

[audifan]

Try screwing the bolt back in, then hold the external handle open and now slacken the screw to see if that helps. Hopefully that will open the handle enough to either pull the "lock" or enable you to get to the cable.

Unfortunately you need the external part of the "lock" removed to allow access to the rear edge of the handle where the little cable clips in.

As you turn the screw the locking bar is dragged over the "lock" if it does not move or not far enough the part is not released. Have a good look to see if the issue is now clear.