[Amc-list] Rear door on Eagle wagon won't open

[Roger Blake <rogblake@xxxxxxxxx>]

During the winter I started having a problem with the left rear door
on my '85 Eagle wagon, in that it will not open using either the inside or
outside door handle. Now that the weather is getting decent I finally
decided to check out the inside of the door to see what's going on. I
managed to get the door panel off from inside the car.

I was hoping to find just a linkage rod fallen out of place, but
no such luck. Both inside and outside door handle linkages work,
as does the door lock linkage. When I work the door lock I can see
a slider moving up and down in the latch, but the latch does not
release. So it appears then that the door lock mechanism inside the
latch is stuck in the "locked" position.

The Eagle M.R. 251 manual does not have a body section, but I do have
a 1975 AMC TSM (Eagle latches should be the same as Hornet). Unfortunately
the TSM does not go into detail on the workings of the latch itself, only
the control linkages. I assume then that the latch is supposed to be
swapped out as a unit if it fails, trouble is of course that the door
has to be open to do this!

I've tried soaking everything I can reach with penetrating oil. (Didn't
expect this to do anything, and it didn't, but couldn't think of anything
else.) Any ideas how I can get this door open, short of a torch?

-- 
   Roger Blake
   rogblake@xxxxxxxxx
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