Releasing door latches - alternatives to e_plosi_es ?

[3930dave]

Anybody have any tips on releasing door latches, once the POS plastic swage ferrules disintegrate ?

I plan to try these,

Vehicle Parts & Accessories

Got my '01 E350 last Fall, I have the secondary side door refusing to open. Over the winter, I bookmarked the above link, can't remember where I found them, but as I recall someone had decent results with them.

Has anybody had any luck manually tripping the latches on the secondary side door ? I can see some slight movement on the top latch, using the cable, but none on the bottom latch. The bottom latch may actually be jammed, as the ball end of the cable is ripped out of the door handle - but maybe these handles are just weak... not sure yet. Haven't broken out the really big pry bars, in my limited experience, finesse works much better with latches than massive force, at least on something not being scrapped.

I've got a straight shot at the mounting bolts on the side door upper latch, but the bottom one is blocked - there is about a 6" x 1" small housing tacked on to the door, effectively blocking access to the mounting bolts for the lower side door latch.

Any suggestions, short of cutting torches/angle grinders ? (I have those, just prefer not to break 'em out just yet).

Rdgs, D.

[3930dave]

Turns out, most of the problem on my side door was just the anti-rattle coating on the latch.

After soaking with ReleaseAll, got it open. The vinyl coating on the door portion of the
latch was worn, and started to jam up into it's housing - there is lots of clearance on the top latch, but not much on the bottom one.

Ripped out as much of the broken vinyl coating as I could, got the hinges cleaned and
lubed, works pretty well now.

Watching another recent thread, I may order some of the custom ferrules for the cables anyway, as it sounds as the OE ones are bio-degradeable.

D.