92 AstroVan rear doors stuck shut

Here's one for the body people. I have a 92 Chevy Astro Van. The rear doors recently decided that I no longer need to open them and they feel almost like they're locked shut. They aren't locked and the lock mechanism feels like it's working, but the doors just won't open. For about 2 weeks before this, I noticed I had to push on the doors right by the latch to get them to release when I pulled the handle. Akward to say the least. Now they don't open no matter how creative I get. And yes, they're unlocked. ;)

My manual for the van (Clymers I think) says to fix the latch I need to first open the doors to access the latch screws. How exactly do I get these back doors open to do that?

I'd guess pry off the inner panels somehow to access the mechanism from inside, but I'd like to know if that's the right thing to do before I do something stupid and wreck the panels. Then I'd have rear barn doors that won't open AND have ripped up inner panels. ;)

Cheers

Reply to
Cat Kahuna
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Cat,

I am not a body & fender guy, but I can tell you what happened to my '91 Astro Van... The plastic part that connects the door handle to the latch broke... same thing, couldn't open the rear doors from the outside, no handle inside... The Tech at the dealership climbed in the back and popped the speaker grille off, removed speaker, then reached inside the rear door and tripped the latch with his hand... of course once they got the door open, they could easily disassemble it the rest of the way to replace the broken linkage... Hope this helps and works for you.

Good Luck

Reply to
dzlman95

once its open make sure the connectin rods are still on the latch, i used some apoxy to fix it on m;y burb( temp ) now lookin for a real fix

Reply to
mudmonkey

Thanks folks, just what I was looking for.

Cheers

Reply to
Cat Kahuna

replying to dzlman95, Lisa McIntosh wrote: We cannot get the rivots off the speaker to fix the inside barn door handle. Husband was going to rig it while the one I ordered ships. It's my work van need to load 2000lbs boxes back there for my deliveries and no way with left /driverside back door broke. Each box is 40 to 60lbs. He said if he messes up the rivots my speaker wont go back in right. I dont want him to mess up my interior. How'd you get the speaker back in? TIA Lisa

Reply to
Lisa McIntosh

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