Wanting to fix the door locks on my 98 classic. They are power but I dont really care if the power locks work. I would be satisfied being able to manually lock all the doors. The only one I can not manually lock is the Drivers side. It wont even lock with the key. Try and push the lock button manually and it wont budge. Take the door panel off and pull the lock op road and it locks and unlocks just fine. Put the door panel back on and it wont budge so its almost like its binding up with the door panel installed but for the life of me I dont see how. The only thing I can figure is the angle everything is at changes with the door panel installed and wont let it budge. Where do yall suggest I start. I thought about replacing the latching mechanism but since it moves freely with the panel off dont know if that would work and I dont want to just start throwing parts at it hoping to get lucky. I dont know if it means anything but when I first got the jeep you could hear the doors trying to lock when you hit the power lock button but now its like they dont even try.

By the way I am not opposed to fixing the power feature but if it means spending a bunch of money and headache time trouble shooting over just making them work manually I would rather just make em work the old fashioned way.

 

I found my issue to be a blown fuse, previous owner(s) had installed a 5amp fuse and it should have been a 20 or 30.

 

well that would definitely stop the power function from working but dont see how a blown fuse could keep the door from locking manually. Seems to me like whatever is binding it up would be likely to cause the blown fuse. Im going to piddle with it some saturday. ever since daylight savings time ended I dont make it home from work before dark and I hate working on her in the dark.

 

I hear you on the daylight savings time, what about using the back door mechanism, not plugging it in just connecting the mechanical part ?

 

It may be the connection between rod and door lock.

In my 91, there is a metal bar which connects to the door lock. You can remove the lock by reaching in the door panel side and removing the clip which puts pressure on the lock holding it in place. Number 13 in picture below. The piece resembles a cowboys bowed legs with knees slightly bent. Remove it by sliding the piece out by the top bend. It will take some muscle.

No. 1 is ignition cylinder lock, No. 2 is door locks, No. 3 is hatch, No. 4 is glove compartment

 

I thought about swapping the rear mechanism with the front to see what happened in order to test for part failure but still have not had time to do it in the day light. Gonna piddle with it this weekend as it will be my first day off that it has not rained in a while. There cant be to much wrong with it because as I said everything moves freely with the door panel off. Problem is now that I have the time I dont have the money to do much buying of parts. Thats how it usually works out.

Thanks for the response. I will et you know if I figure anything out.