Sorry, it is broken. The little black knob is supposed to stay up by
itself. The 80-84 models are prone to this failure. A tiny spring breaks
and then the little black knob won't stay up and the door locks itself
every time you close it. The whole latch assembly is riveted together so
I don't know how to fix it. I buy working ones at the junkyard and
replace them. The later models don't seem to fail this way but they
won't fit the early door.

Mark

Jessup Coffin wrote:
> ...
> Now though, I'm curious, is there anyway to make it possible to open the
> sliding door without fiddling with the black knob every time? guessing that
> it's some kind of child proofing lock, but it's also mostly me proof. grin.
> 82 vanagon.
>