alfamia

I am restoring a '92 Beauville. She's a great ol gal, but she's been rode hard and put away wet. The rear door handle pushbutton has broken, resulting in the latch inside becoming loose and I'm unable to easily push in on the square to unlatch the door. I removed the carpet and reached in and pulled up on the lower rod and down on the upper rod, so the door could be popped open. but I really need a new latch as it's really worn and bumged up. I think there may be pieces missing off it. And of course it apparently is an unobtainable part. Is my only hope to stalk junkyards like Ahab looking for the White Whale? HELP!!!! Any latches out there ???

William Kisselstein

First, get a new handle, find one with a metal button as those are much less likely to break - 91 and back. Direct interchange. Same handle for all doors (just turn it upside down to change button from left to right side), two 10 mm bolts hold it on.

Tons of people part these out on eBay, I would suggest looking for someone in the south or west. The latches on these do rust inside in damp climates and that causes them to become stiff and work poorly. You can hit them with WD40 or similar and free them up but eventually they just don't want to work.

alfamia

Thanks but my problem is not just the handle. I’d like to replace the latch inside the door against which the push button pushes.
Any idea of part number or availability?

William Kisselstein

It's unlikely that's the problem, but it's the same deal, you have to find somebody parting one out.

The actual latches are at the top and bottom of the door. The piece the handle button pushes against is just a lever that pulls the activator rods up/down to open the latches, and has the lock function on it. When the latches start to stick and not work right, those rods will flex.

The interchange on this is at least 83-96, maybe even all the way back to 71. They eliminated the inside lock **** at some point, but the latch still has the ear for the rod on it.

I was messing with one in the junkyard here with 300,000 miles on it that had some pretty bad rust (holes under the tail lights rust) and the lower latch was a little sticky, the rest of it worked fine.

alfamia

Thanks! I was hoping there was availability - the pivot point on the latch is actually so wobbly it allows the push tab to bend and loses the leverage to pull/push the rods. Hence the need to replace or maybe do a little blacksmithing if unavailable.
Looking forward to spring!