Hi All,

This goes in the for what its worth department...

Past Experience: I had a similar problem with my rear hatch lock.  I found
that a screw had come loose from the rear wiper mounting plate and had
lodged down around the hatch lock.  I couldn't really understand why this
was jamming the lock but it did. Once removed the lock returned to normal
operation.

Jere
90 GL
88 GL

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf
Of David O'Shea
Sent: Monday, November 12, 2001 3:34 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Removing Rear Hatch Lock

I can no longer rotate the key in the lock of the rear hatch of my '83
Vanagon. Luckily it's stuck in the unlocked position. Lubricating it in
place was no help. I thought I'd try removing it from the van, flushing it
with brake cleaner, lubing it with teflon spray lubricant in order to free
it up. If that fails, I'll take it to the locksmith for a little
professional TLC.

Questions:
How does one remove the rear lock cylinder from the hatch? ..does the entire
latch mechanism need to come out of the door? None of this is clear from a
quick review of my Bentley.

My typical M.O. is to just dive right in and start taking things apart. Half
the time I end up creating more work than necessary. This time I thought I'd
check with y'all first.

Any bright ideas appreciated.

-Dave O'Shea