Rear barn door interior release mechanism

[LiftedAWDAstro]

My rear doors have been stuck closed for a month or so and I figured I better fix it now before the cold weather gets here. Crawled inside and pulled the door panel open enough to get my hand in to pull the release. Now to see why.

Pulled the trim panel completely off including the speaker grill to release the carpet panel.





Found the linkage simply came off the handle trip. Plugged it in and it works! Now to eliminate that from happening again. I pulled the latch mechanism out by removing the 4 T-30 torx bolts. I also had to release the opener and lock pull rods.



You end up with this:



Now I drilled a couple holes in the arms. The one on the left is for the lock and the right one is the latch release. In the latch release, I installed the plastic bushing and a test linkage. The plastic bushing was removed from the key lock mechanism. This has been frozen since I bought the van.

[LiftedAWDAstro]

Now to make a handle to lock/unlock in case the power actuator dies. Found a copper wire lug I had lying around and straightened it out.





Put a small #10 bolt in it:





Installed the latch mechanism back into the door and marked a couple spots for the new release linkages to come through. Didn't get a pic as the camera batteries died before I got new ones. Once these holes were drilled, I installed the lug on the bolt and bolted that with a lock nut to the lock release arm. You need to keep it loose enough to allow free movement.







I then cut 4.5" of the linkage from the key lock since it was just hanging there. I then installed that into the new hole with plastic bushing in the latch release arm. You can just see it going up.



Here they are poking through the door:



And finished off:



The one on the right with the 90 degree bend is the door opener...just push down! The other is the lock. Down for lock, up for unlock.

[CaptSquid]

Nicely done, excellent write-up and so-so pictures . But one question begs to be asked...

What are these "barn doors" of which you speak?

[infinite.chris]

I always kinda felt this is how the vans, both cargo and passenger, should have came, stock.

Excellent encouragement to free up my lock cylinder in the back, as of late it only unlocks via the main door unlock!

[astrozam]

Good stuff Deano

[neppi]

Here's my solution. Inside the door it's about the same as 'Lifted':s. The pic's look crappy, but in real life the thing's looking quite all right.

Parts from 89 Toyota Starlet, the mushroom-like from the rear seat backrest and the square-one from the door.

Easy mod and upgrades the original 100%.

Neppi

[Smiliesafari]

Good job, guys. Another mod I should do. Dean, still waiting for an update on the S 10 cluster mod.

[LiftedAWDAstro]

Dean, still waiting for an update on the S 10 cluster mod.

Possibly this week. Gotta get the transfer case done first and it's supposed to be single digits!