GL Door Lock Relocation ?'s

[GeneralLee440]

Now this may have been covered a million times but I couldn't find anything. I found these pics from an Original GL and the Door locks have been relocated and I was wondering if any othe GL owners have seen this or have done this to theirs? Im wanting to do this to mine but Im not sure how to bend it to make it work for this relocation.

[70 sublime]

On 68 Chargers the door lock knob was at the back edge close to the glass (straight above the door lock itself)
When the new rules came out that they had to be farther ahead of the edge of the glass (too easy to open with a coat hanger) Dodge just added another lever inside the door to transfer this motion farther forward
I bet if you look inside the GL door they just took this extra lever and tipped it over so it was pulling in and out instead of up and down and that is why it is where it is located on the GL door panel

Just my guess

[GeneralLee440]

I knew the 68's were farther back. Now Im gonna have to look at mine. I dont think I have all my linkages so I want to figure this out
Thanks for the reply

[GeneralLee440]

I wish I could look inside this GL but its in Georgia and Im in Illinois. I found this pic on the internet

[Dino]

Never seen that before.  I thought they simply got rid of the stock lock rod so they could slide in and out of the car without getting hung up on it.

In any case, it's pretty straightforward to make a different type of lock rod but if it was me I'd delete the rod and install remote controlled actuators.  Actually I just installed them on mine but I kept the stock rods as I won't be crawling through windows!   

You can add a moment switch inside to lock and unlock the doors as well if you'd want to.  The rod on the door panel looks pretty bad!

[GeneralLee440]

Yea they do look bad Dino and I was tryin to come up with something better. I guess I could always "delete" the locks and just use a key to lock it if need be if its out somewhere.

[GeneralLee440]

And in the event I "delete" the lock from the doors, I need to see if I can redo my upper pads w/onthe lock holes being visible

[Dino]

Or just put a rubber plug in it and paint to match.  As long as it's round and flush it'll look good.  IF anyone notices.

My doors only have the lock and actuator in them at the moment so let me know if you need pics.  There's a lot of room to reroute the lock rod if you wanted to.  The actuators work great by the way and they were less than $10 for the pair.  They don't come with a remote, I have that from the alarm system, but it's easy to add a remote for them if needed.

[GeneralLee440]

Thanks Dino I really appreciate it

[GeneralLee440]

So I think I have figured out where Im gonna relocate my door locks to. Im gonna play around with it to see if they will work in this location. I want to relocate them right next to the wing window frame. Basically all im doing is extending the rod to put in this location. I think it will look ALOT better than the pics I posted before. And it will be a small touch to my GL

[c00nhunterjoe]

Have you tried jumping in through the windows? Even with the lock removed, its not very easy to do seemlessly. Lol.

[Mike DC]

   
The proposed new location by the wing windows is near the path of your shoes when climbing through.

[GeneralLee440]

Have you tried jumping in through the windows? Even with the lock removed, its not very easy to do seemlessly. Lol.

Well Im not gonna jump thru the windows thats for sure! I would probably break my neck. I tried climbing thru the windows when I got it home and the motor being out of it, of course it sat up higher. Plus Im a bigger guy so the chances are slim that I would climb thru the windows alot.

[GeneralLee440]

   
The proposed new location by the wing windows is near the path of your shoes when climbing through.

Well I dont think that would be too much of an issue being that close to the wing window frame, but thanks for the possible problem that could arise.

[70 sublime]

Why bother moving it at all if you are not going to move it to be like the real car ?

You could probably shorten the rod the knob screws onto enough that you can push the knob down till it touches the interior panel and you can still climb in with out getting caught on it 

[comet_666]

Or weld the doors shut

[comet_666]

Does anyone have a pic of what the linkage should look like normally on a 69?

Mine is mucked up somehow.

[Dino]

A rod runs horizontally from the lock to the pivot that's bolted to the door frame.  From there a second rod runs straight up and through the upper pad.  Disregard the actuator, that ain't stock.   

[comet_666]

Is the rod with the yellow arrow pointing to it pop through upper door pad? If so is it bent in anyway?  Mine comes out the top pad at a severe angle \ and doesnt work because of it.

[Dino]

I don't see a yellow arrow but I'm assuming you mean the rod that goes from the swivel thingie up through the pad?

It has a slight bend in it but that bend does not make the rod go at an angle. From the swivel mechanism the rod goes straight up, see first pic. It doesn't angle towards the front or the back of the door at all. The bend is visible in picture 2 and runs from the outer door skin toward the inside door frame so the lock knob would come out of the door perpendicular to the top of the upper pad.

Sorry for the bad pics. It was the best I could do right now.

Can you get a picture of your mechanism? It almost sounds as if the swivel mechanism is in the wrong spot.

[70 sublime]

Is the rod with the yellow arrow pointing to it pop through upper door pad? If so is it bent in anyway?  Mine comes out the top pad at a severe angle \ and doesnt work because of it.

I bet you $10 your door is a 68 and they have just tipped the rod over to come out the 69 hole is why it is on an angle

[comet_666]

They are new 69 doors from AMD
I will need to pull it apart this weekend and take a peek..but yes, the rod that barely pokes through the hole in the 69 upper pad because it's at such an angle.

Sorry to hijack your thread GeneralLee440

[GeneralLee440]

They are new 69 doors from AMD
I will need to pull it apart this weekend and take a peek..but yes, the rod that barely pokes through the hole in the 69 upper pad because it's at such an angle.

Sorry to hijack your thread GeneralLee440

Its ok comet. I dont mind, it just gives me pics for future reference. 
Hijack away

[GeneralLee440]

Why bother moving it at all if you are not going to move it to be like the real car ?

You could probably shorten the rod the knob screws onto enough that you can push the knob down till it touches the interior panel and you can still climb in with out getting caught on it 

Well its only 1 of many GL's so there might be other ways that they did it.

[Dino]

Why would a screen GL need them anyway? They probably didn't even bother to unbolt the rods and just cut them off and left it at that.

[Brock Lee]

Why would a screen GL need them anyway? They probably didn't even bother to unbolt the rods and just cut them off and left it at that.

That is exactly what they did. They would pull them up, unscrew the knob, clip the exposed rod off with bolt cutters and drop the stump down inside the door.

Rather than fab up bogus looking locks, just remove the stems and install a universal power door lock actuator in one or both of the doors. Then you can lock and unlock with a key fob.