Wes and all,

I saved an article posted by John Anderson and thought this would help
with the problem.  Thanks to John for this great post!

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Finally got to pissed at the constantly locking itself when I closed it rear
hatch lock today, this seems a fairly common malady on late central locked
Vanagons.  This may have been dealt with once before I don't recall, here it
is again.

So took it all apart and started looking, became fairly obvious that the
power solenoid and the latch mechanism were just fine, so I went ahead and
removed the lock cylinder unit.  Upon very careful inspection the true root
of the problem presented itself.  The whole thing is a rather poorly
engineered half assed afair IMNSHO, the power solenoid slides this giant
pivoting actuator back and forth, here is how it fails.  In the power
unlocked position the sliding affair is held under the lock cylinder plunger
in position to contact the latch trip mechanism by a little spring loaded
brass pin on an arm opposite about the pivot from the arm that contacts the
latch, which stops in both (power) locked and unlocked positions by falling
into a divots in the pot metal casting of the lock cylinder.  You must
remove the cylinder to see this, this is done by first removing the latch
(3, 6mm flat SHCS) then by popping off the power linkage, then by pushing
the lock cylinder into the door from the outside pivoting it clockwise as
you look at it through the latch hole until the little alignment tab can
slide into the door through the slot ground for it in the door metal.
Anyway after removing the lock cylinder you will see the little pivot arm
and spring loaded pin, which has likely worn the side of the divot it stops
in to the point where it barely holds in the unlock position.  What happens
is when you slam the door momentum carries the pivot arm out of the unlock
position a little ways and as the contact surfaces slope toward making the
assembly locked, pushing the button does not, or only partially unlatches
the latch.  My solution, took the dremel and a little milling bit and chewed
the divot to about twice its existing depth, removing almost entirely the
worn ramp surface that the pin slid (too easily) up (about 5 seconds with
the dremel, the stuff is REAL soft.)  Total fix would take about 15 minutes
and a dremel now that I know what to do.  Put it all back together and
slammed it ruthelessly in the power unlocked position repeatedly, never
locks unitentionally now.  The power unit still has more than sufficient
guts to move the arm past the now deeper divot.  Greased all contact
surfaces with dabs of moly, and it is all good (or better) than new.

John
janderson@iolinc.net

At 09:57 PM 2/12/99, Wes Neuenschwander wrote:
>For the past month or so a problem has been evolving with the rear hatch
>power lock on my '91 Westy:  Whenever I lock and unlock any of the side

>I'm perplexed.  I checked the Bentley - nice pic's and R&R sequence, but
>of course, nothing on trouble shooting.  I recalled a thread here on the
>subject some time ago, but with Gerry on the ropes my search attempts
>have been futile.  I plan on popping the rear hatch trim panel this
>weekend and poking around a bit, but I'm not sure the cause of the
>problem is going to be self evident.   Any guidance, tips or work arounds
>would be most appreciated.
>
>-Wes
>
>Wes Neuenschwander
>Seattle, WA
>wesn@eskimo.com
>
>