Ford van. Rear door latch jammed and won't open. Both cables broke.

[ben2go]

2007 E150, my rear door latch is jammed. I recently bought this van with this condition. Whoever tried to make repairs was less than clueless. They pulled both of the cables out of place and jammed the balls on the ends into the latch. I have worked for over a week almost ever day trying to jimmy open that latch. I took to a friend's body shop. He tried and said the only way he knew to get the doors open was to cut a hole in the door around the latch to open the door and then cut the latch apart to open the left door. Then, replace the right door with new hardware. My doors do need some minor rust repair on the lower inside corners, which I will do. I just do not want to go to cutting open that door. Anyone know of a way to force the latch open from underneath?

 

[ben2go]

Got the latch open by grabbing what was left of the cable end, and jimmying it until it caught the latch inside and popped it open. I ordered all new parts to make repairs to the broken door and to prevent the others from breaking. The plastic furls on the ends of the cables are what break and cause problems. Dorman makes new aluminum ones for short money. Changing them will save a lot of problems in the future. That and using dry lube on the cables so they don't get gritty and sticky.

The rear doors need two of these kits and if you have double doors on the side, three kits should do all four doors.

Metal Cable Furls

The dry lube I use on cables. Good for motorcycles and lawn and garden equipment too.

Blaster Dry Lube