After buying our 'new to us' 2002 F-350 I noticed that the lower door latches on the suicide doors were not latching from years of living in a salt state and the dirt and grime that a truck sees. Called a couple of body shops and a few dealers and it was all the same story, the latches come as part of an assembly. For $145 its a good deal for the upper and lower latches, the cables and handle. The only problem is that I would need two of these and would only be using the lower latches. After looking at a couple of junk yards and not finding any thing it seemed like there was nothing to loose in just taking them out of the truck and seeing how they worked. Depending on how bad the main frame of the latch is rotted, they can be disassembled and repaired. Here is how I did it.

DISCLAIMER: This is a safety devise so please don't tackle this if you have concerns over your workmanship. If you don't get a properly working latch at the end of this fix be prepared to by a new assembly. A cheap fix is not worth someones life!!!!

1. Remove the upper and lower plastic panels on the inside of the door. The upper panel around the window will require you to pull two phillips screws for the window latch and then with a little gentle pulling the upper panel will just pull off of the door, it seems best to start at one corner and work your way around the panel.





2. Next, there will be two 7mm or 8mm ( I cant remember which it is) screws and two plastic fasteners at the top of the lower panel. I just broke the heads off of the plastic ones and put it back with out but I think you can get these at an automotive help section. At this point you can pull straight up on the panel and it should come right off.





3. Pull the plastic sheet off of the lower corner that the latch is located so you have enough room to pull the latch out.



4. Remove the T-25 Torx fasteners that hold the latch in the door. Depending on how rusted these are you may have to resort to penetrating oil and in my case I had to chisel one off.



5. Remove the release cable from the latch and it should be free.





6. With the latch oriented as it was in the door, you will see that there is two rivets, these are also the pivot points for the latch and the catch that holds the latch closed, along with a third tab that is mushroomed out. These three points that hold the assembly together must be ground off or drilled out. One of the rivet heads sits in a pocket and will have to be drilled but the other two points can be carefully ground off. It is important to save the rivets because they have shoulders on them and need to be reused.


tab



rivet and pivot point to the catch


rivet and pivot point for the main latch





7. After the rivets have been ground off you can drive the rivets out with a punch and work the top plate off. At this point you will see a plastic spacer that is located over the catch release arm. Remove the spacer and the release arm and put them aside.

8. Pull the plastic core of the latch up out of the steel base. You may have to get a small flat screw driver to pry the plastic up from all of the rust and dirt tends to glue things together.

9. When you get the plastic loose from the steel base flip the base up and pull the plastic way from the steel plate. There are two springs that are in a pocket that you need to keep and compare if they need to be replaced. The springs are not large and are not under any large amount of tension at this point.

10. Here you will see how the catch engages the latch to keep the door closed. At this time you will need to clean all the metal parts and repaint as needed.

11. The plastic on the latch and the catch will most likely be worn or missing but you can still clean these up and reuse them provided that they are not distorted from wear. The rivets will most likely show signs of wear as well and you may have to find a suitable replacement if there is too much wear.

12. After cleaning and repainting all of the parts, reinstall the springs and latches in the plastic core with a good amount of a quality grease. I chose a thinner grease so as not to bind the latch.

13. Take the steel base of the latch and set it back over the plastic core.

14. Use a punch or a drift pin to line the hole in the latch with the hole in the steel base. You can usually push the rivet in right behind the drift pin for both the latch and the catch. These will keep the assembly lined up to reinstall the rest of the parts at this point.

15. Hold the rivets in the plate and flip the plastic core side up.

16. Now you can put the release arm back back on and be careful to put the release arm back on the little stud the sticks out of the catch. This is were the door latch gets 'opened'.

17. You are now ready to replace the plastic spacer and replace the top plate.

18. This is the point where careful removal of the rivet heads is important. You will need to spot weld the rivet head and the tab back to the top plate, being careful to not put too much heat into the assembly due to the plastic and grease that you have assembled the latch with. If you don't have access to a mig welder you could always customize a shoulder bolt and use a nut or nylock to replace the rivets but that will still leave you with the tab side of the top plate to secure by some other method.

19. Check your work and make sure you can latch and unlatch the assembly. If you can operate the latch by hand then it should work just fine once reinstalled in the truck.

20. Hook the cable back up and bolt the latch back in the door. After checking the door for secure latching replace the interior plastic panels in the same manner that they were removed.

I hope this helps some one out there. Once I got it apart it was a breeze and only took me an hour to do the second door latch.

 

Nice instructions. Reps sent your way.

 

+1 on the instructions. Thanks very much.
Best Regards.
Russ

 

Thank you..... I want to get another one of these latches or take one of mine back out to take pictures. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be and saved a bunch of money!! Who doesn't like those two things combined?!?!

 

Nice job, Rep points sent.

 

I need to find another latch to rebuild so I can do pics. Anyone got one that needs to be fixed?

 

Got a few pictures added to help, still got a few more that need to be posted.

There are more pics of the latch in my garage if you need to see them before I get this all updated.

 

hmm guess i gotta try this fix.. mine drive me absolutely nuts..

 

If you can free up the parts externally without tearing the lock apart you can install a spring over the cable between the mount and pull lever to return the latching mechanism. This will take 20 min tops a door to do you can reach up and remove cable tube from top mount to get additional slack to install spring and cable to the latch. If you don't have a welder this is the easy way out.

 

Great instructions if you can open the door. I can't; at least not yet with what I know. The cable appears to work fine all the way down to the bottom latch. I've pulled the ball out of the mechanism and it operates when articulating the latch handle. This door has been a bear to open for the past five months and just quit. The bottom latch post was very, very rusty last time I saw it. The bottom of the door is also very rusty. I can't see as yet a way to operate the latch from inside or outside to get the door open so I can remove the latch bolts.

Suggestions?

 

Same here just got a 2000 F250 Super Cab for my wife, but it has a issue where the back suicide doors don't open. I was able to get the driver side open removing the trim ,and pulling the wire for the upper Control Assembly, but on the passenger side both Control Assemblies are bad. Worst yet the bottom Control Assembly cord is snapped off from the Control Assembly itself instead of the door handle. Was wondering if anyone knew a trick to accessing the Control Assembly without cord. Once I get the door open replacing the Control Assemblies will be a cinch. Only problem is it looks like only Ford parts, so I'll be paying through the nose.

 

Hadn't updated my plight... Liquid Wrench is the stuff. I sprayed it liberally around the lower strike and after a coupla doses it opened, albeit reluctantly. The cable and all parts were intact; it was just serious rust holding everything in place. I'd heard of this stuff, but never used it before.

 

I found the same parts for this repair, but cheaper and directly from the manufacturer. You can check them out in okmarketplace.com under vehicle and accessories.

Vehicle Parts & Accessories

 

Umm, yeah... not really the same. This ones were designed by an engineer in an industrial environment.


I personally think Manufacturing plant > machine shop, that's just me though.

 

did you ever find a way to get latch out