Ian Cameron wrote:
The sliding door on my '82 won't open.  Well, it will if I hold the
handle in the 'open' position and belt the rear of the door from the
inside with the heel of my hand.  But that's not very convenient.  When
I pull the handle the rear of the door clicks and opens a cm or two, but
that's it. I've sprayed WD 40 on every point I can see.
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My neighbor has a 1983 westy that has the same problem.  We tracked it
down to the round brass part of the lock mechanism that protrudes from
the rear edge of the sliding door.  On my 82 this "piece" rotates freely
by hand.   On his, it was stuck quite tight and could not be rotated by
hand.  Further analysis indicated that this "piece" needs to rotate in
order for it to clear the peg that it latches to the vehicle to hold the
door closed.

The "piece" on the sliding door needs to rotate after opening the the
door using the handle, if it doesn't then the door won't move away from
the vehicle. We tried lubing it from the outside but that did not
help.
I thought we should remove the door panel to access the entire mechanism
and to work it free.  We never did resolve it as he did not want to do
surgery on his door.  He was afraid he would break the fasteners while
removing the panel and not be able to re-install his panel.  Anyone know
a source for the door panel fasteners. List Vendors??  He was afraid he
would break the fasteners while removing the panel and not be able to
re-install his panel.  That's the problem we found but no solution yet.
Anyone else have an idea for adjusting or lubricating this mechanism?

Ken Wyatt
82 westy, heading to the Tetons this weekend.