Door Latch on S4 drophead

[Steve Bearden <sbearde]

Hi fellow listers!

I let my 2 1/2 year old granddaughter sit in the Elan
while I worked on the convertible top (hood) bows and
their stowage cover. I was able to monitor her
activities just fine until her mom showed up. I was
then distracted in a conversation until I noticed the
little one pulling on the left inside door latch quite
hard. I stopped her and didn't think much more about
it.

After they left, I got ready to reinstall the
convertible top (hood) and realized that the inside
door latch no longer worked. The outside latch stopped
working a while ago. Now I have a nicely closed door
and no obvious way to open it. I don't have a parts
book on the car to visualize how things are supposed
to be connected inside the door.

Any suggestions on how I can get the door open?

Are internal door parts still available?

Would anyone be willing to scan the parts illustration
of the latch mechanism on a S4 drophead and email it
to me? If so, please use [email protected] as the
address since it does not have an inbox limit like my
rocketmail/yahoo account. Maybe a fax would work, if
you don't mind calling San Diego, CA. My work fax
number is (858) 496-3531 and make sure that my name is
on the fax or it will just end up in the trash.

Thanks listers for sharing your knowledge about these
cars. I find it fascinating to see how many ways there
are to accomplish the same goal of keeping these cars
running (emergency brakes, Webers, etc.). I just
finished reading for the first time Wilkins Twin-Cam
book from cover-to-cover and thoroughly enjoyed it.
What's even more enjoyable is that on this list so
many perspectives on a given subject are offered -
interpretation along with facts. It's too cool.

One last question. Is the linkage from the vacuum
motors to the headlight pods still available somewhere
or will I have to have some custom made? I think that
all I'm missing there are the little actuating rods.

TIA

Steve Bearden (digest mode)


=====

[dlbutler]

Steve,
Look for a small latch on the door mechanism body. This permits access
only with a key and disables the door on a roadster. I recommend looking
for this latch on your still functioning door. A small child could flip
this latch. I'm giving this advice based on how my S2 works.

[Lawrence King <lawrenc]

Hi Steve:

I had similar problem with one of the locks on my Elan. It turns out
that both the inside mechanism, and the outside mechanism are
connected to the latch mechanism with push rods and bell cranks. It
looks like both of yours have come disconnected. My own personal
attempt at repairing this would be to remove the seat so you have room
to remove the inner skin on the door, then to remove the inner skin
and to finally fiddle the release mechanism so that the door opened.
After the door is opened and skinned it is a simple matter to slightly
bend the push rods and get it all working again. Somebody else might
have a better idea.

As far as the linkages for the headlamps fo, both of mine gave up the
same day last summer. I built new linkages with two small ball joints
and a length of threaded rod. Total cost a few dollars. I didn't even
try to get replacement parts.

Hope this helps

-Lawrence-


Steve Bearded wrote:

--
Lawrence King Ottawa Ontario Canada
http://www.promobility.net/lawrence
Is boneless chicken considered to be an invertebrate?

[Rob_LaMoreaux]

I can scan the diagrams tonight when I get home. In the mean time I'll
fax you the page out of the workshop manual.

I'd try to catch the latch mechanism with a stiff wire coat hanger down
the window opening. The pushrods on my car were off and for a while I
attached a wire to the latch so I could keep the door closed while I
worked on taking other things apart. I'd then just grab the wire and
pull to open the door. I'll mark the latch on the fax.

Once you get it open you can remove the trim pad and find out what
popped out. I had missing pushrods and the interior lock rod pops out so
it get's stuck locked or unlocked. If it is acting like it is locked
(you get resistance early and it doesn't open) the lockrod may have
popped out in which case remove the three screws retaining the interior
remote control and pull the lock rod to the front.

That's one thing about a car that needs to be dissassemble before
getting it on the road; You can figure out how all the little bits work.


Robert D. LaMoreaux
4096 Central Blvd.
Ann Arbor, MI 48108
Phone: (734)-971-5583
Work phone:(248)-449-8284
Work Fax:(248)-449-2577
Email:[email protected]
Work Email:[email protected]
Too many Hobbies, Too little Time, and way too much work.
1969 Lotus Elan...It's not a restoration, it's a never-ending adventure.



-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Bearden [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, November 11, 1999 1:29 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [lotuselan] Door Latch on S4 drophead


From: Steve Bearden <[email protected]>

Hi fellow listers!

I let my 2 1/2 year old granddaughter sit in the Elan
while I worked on the convertible top (hood) bows and
their stowage cover. I was able to monitor her
activities just fine until her mom showed up. I was
then distracted in a conversation until I noticed the
little one pulling on the left inside door latch quite
hard. I stopped her and didn't think much more about
it.

After they left, I got ready to reinstall the
convertible top (hood) and realized that the inside
door latch no longer worked. The outside latch stopped
working a while ago. Now I have a nicely closed door
and no obvious way to open it. I don't have a parts
book on the car to visualize how things are supposed
to be connected inside the door.

Any suggestions on how I can get the door open?

Are internal door parts still available?

Would anyone be willing to scan the parts illustration
of the latch mechanism on a S4 drophead and email it
to me? If so, please use [email protected] as the
address since it does not have an inbox limit like my
rocketmail/yahoo account. Maybe a fax would work, if
you don't mind calling San Diego, CA. My work fax
number is (858) 496-3531 and make sure that my name is
on the fax or it will just end up in the trash.

Thanks listers for sharing your knowledge about these
cars. I find it fascinating to see how many ways there
are to accomplish the same goal of keeping these cars
running (emergency brakes, Webers, etc.). I just
finished reading for the first time Wilkins Twin-Cam
book from cover-to-cover and thoroughly enjoyed it.
What's even more enjoyable is that on this list so
many perspectives on a given subject are offered -
interpretation along with facts. It's too cool.

One last question. Is the linkage from the vacuum
motors to the headlight pods still available somewhere
or will I have to have some custom made? I think that
all I'm missing there are the little actuating rods.

TIA

Steve Bearden (digest mode)

[Stevie-Heathie]

In the UK, its a condition of obtaining the annual MOT cerfuficate that
if latches are fitted on the inside and the outside of doors, they must
both work, so that the doors can be opened from both the inside and
outside.

My Midget actually failed on this a couple of years ago. The passenger
door would only open from the outside - not really a problem in
practice, just open window and reach out. Anyway, I couldn't get the
latch to work on the inside of the door despite hours of fiddling, so I
made sure the roof was off for the re-test and the guy forgot to check,
I guess, because she passed. Hurrah.

Best of luck
Steve
1970 Plus 2S

[brettengelaz]

Steve:
Been here, done this.....
There is a small lever on the face of the door latch mechanism that locks
out the
inside door handle, much like a child-proof lock on many modern cars. If
that has
been triggered, or if the mechanism has been jammed (more likely), _and_
your outer door handle is not working, this will put you into a bit of a
pickle.
Both of my outer handles were not working due to the stud on the back of the
button being misaligned with "paddle" on the latch. After cleaning and
rebuilding
the latches, I left the drivers side in the "owner-proof" position by
accident...

Here's how I recovered:
Make sure that the outer door lock is unlocked, then slip a piece of sheet
metal
about 2"x6" in long between the outer window and the door centered on the
door release
button. (scrap .050 shim stock). Then push the outer button, it should
release the door..
Then push the lever into the "owner-driver" position ....

The permanent fix is to bend the stud on the door handle button just enough
to
engage the latch..Mine have worked fine for over a year now...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
Brett Engel PSO Engineer
Cisco Professional Services
(602)-912-1852 [email protected]
Cisco Systems Suite 120
2390 E Camelback Rd Phoenix, AZ 85284
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------

[Steve Bearden <sbearde]

Hi Listers,

Thanks to all that responded to my question about getting my door open
without using the latch. I appreciated all of the instructions and
encouragement. Unfortunately I did not receive the scans that were
kindly sent. Somehow they did not get to me and I did not get by work
to pick up the fax - so what did I do? I took apart the RIGHT hand door
to see how things worked. Then I decided that I'd try the stiff wire
trick on the right hand door for practice. Immediately I hit resistance
and I decided to stop and try something else. Since the inside door
panels are covered fiberglass, I decided to try and push the left door
panel down and out of the top retaining track. It worked! A minute
later and the door was open - what a relief!

After removing the panel I found that the inside latch push rod had
come out of the plastic linking block and that is why the inside latch
stopped working (if you've taken one apart, you know what I mean). I
went ahead and looked around to see what else I could find. The link
was off of the outside door lock. I found the clip in the bottom of the
door using my magnet. That went back on without much of a problem. I
looked around with a mirror, but really didn't figure out why the
outside door latch doesn't work. I ran out of time and buttoned
everything up again. At least now I can get the door open again.

Thanks to all for the help and encouragement.

Steve Bearden
1969 S4 with two doors that open again




=====