Rear sliding door lock mechanism(s) getting stuck

Hello to anyone still perusing the forums for our old vans that are nearly eligible for antique plates (25 years IIRC in my State).


I've never posted in the forum before, but have never really needed to do much to the van. Other than the rear HVAC blend and mode door actuators, front power window regulators, a couple alternators, the heater system Y pipe under the manifold, master cylinder & boost replacement, front and rear suspension, rear hatch wiper, struts; its a great vehicle (not said with sarcasm - we've looked at "newer" ones and just go right back to fixing this one.


Long into over. Over the last couple of years, the drivers rear door occasionally gets "stuck" in the locked position. Can't unlock from front switch or manually even with a LOT of force, i.e. pliers to keep my grip (which is a tad alarming). We usually solved this by waiting, or giving it a hip check from the outside while pressing down and alternately pulling up and operating the lock controls. Eventually it would work, manually lock and unlock a few times, then its good to go for w while.


However, now it occurs on both doors, and despite our various tricks, don't appear to be able to get it unlocked. The locks on both doors attempt to move, you can feel the actuator exerting force inside the door, but it does not unlock. I've put enough pressure on the nubbin pulling up that I feel like something is going to break further down; still no dice.


Anyone have any similar experience? Any solutions? At this point I'm pretty much ready to just take the locks out. I live in a pretty low crime area. Back seat pax know to leave the door alone now. Is it just a weak lock actuator? Would that be somehow overriding the ability to manually unlock?


Here's to hoping. Thank you everyone in advance.

My '99 developed some issues with the electric side locks, got so they could not be depended upon for sure locking or sure unlocking. The side door tractor drive system also got a bit crazy/lazy. (Don't know if your model has all this stuff) Anyways, I ended up removing all the electrics for the rear side door locks and all the tractor goodies. Now the doors are totally manual .. opening, closing, locking, unlocking ... life is much better. The doors are easy to operate.

I highly recommend!

12oz, thanks, that's interesting. I hadn't even considered just pulling all the electronic guts (we do have all the motorized stuff). The doors do operate manually quite easily (what I actually prefer, so much quicker). Is the lock motor operator separate from the lock itself (that's what I really get irritated at)? Or do you have to replace the motorized lock with a manual lock?

As I remember, the electric actuator is kinda added on to a manual operator .. . so it can be easily removed without affecting the manual operator.