Hi all, somewhat new here. Just got my 68 Cougar and it seems I’m experiencing a similar problem that others have brought up with a slight variation. The previous owner has replaced the interior and exterior door latches with reproduction units on both doors. The latches function correctly, with enough spring pressure to hold the locks open, so I do not believe faulty springs are the issue. My problem is that once the lock button is pressed, I cannot easily unlock the doors. The key won’t unlock the door and neither will opening the door from the inside. I can eventually get the door to open and unlock after fiddling with the interior and exterior latches for a few minutes. The problem exists on both doors. Any thoughts on what you think I need to do to fix this issue?
Its a well known issue where the door latch rods are over tightened.
Sorry I didn’t see anything in that thread about the door latch rods being over tightened. Is there something that explains how to loosen them?
Yup. That’s the issue.
The rod from the handle to the latch must be adjusted so there is NO upward tension on the latch lever when the rod is installed. Even the SLIGHTEST amount of upward tension on the latch lever will cause the latch to malfunction as you describe.
See the red circle in the photo above (not my picture FYI). The rod from the door handle has a threaded swivel. Disconnect it from the latch and turn the swivel so that it engages the latch lever PERFECTLY with NO upward pressure on the lever. Then reattach the retaining clip and test the door latch operation BEFORE reinstalling the inner door panel.