You need to be able to lock them so you can say to your passenger " lock that door". 

I'm ready to strip it down and figure it out if no one knows why. 

-craig

On May 9, 2012, at 10:22 PM, Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Come to think of it both my 87 vans need the doors to be closed for the
> doors to lock. The Camper does not have power locks.  I'll have to check the
> '88 Fox. 
> 
> Dennis 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> craig cowan
> Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2012 4:53 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Door locks only work when doors are closed?
> 
> On my '87 syncro, which does not have power locks, I can only seem to lock
> the doors when they are closed. A key will only lock the door if it's
> closed, and the locking "button" can only be depressed with the door closed.
> This is proving to be extremely annoying and is not the case on my other two
> busses.
> This isn't normal right?
> How do I fix it?
> 
> The doors lock and unlock fine and with little effort while closed though...
> 
> -Craig
> '87 SUNROOF SYNCRO WESTY ZETEC
> '90 GL "NEW BUS"
> '85 Residence
>