00_WJ_4.0

Hello everyone. I recently bought another grand, a 99 and the rear doors were stuck closed when I got it. I got the passenger side to work by spraying the crap out of it with PB Blaster, sprayed the drivers rear door as well, that one is still stuck, the lock mechanism doesn't disengage and the rod connecting it to the lock lever on the panel broke off... Any ideas or tricks to get the door open without taking a demo saw to it?? Lol

dave1123

If you take the rear seat out on that side, you can get to the panel to remove it. Then you can spray the s*** out if it to get it to move, reach into the door and pull the release lever. Also, the locking lever is now probably set. Mine had the opposite problem, they wouldn't latch. I had to use a ratchet strap to keep it closed. Right after I got the one fixed, the other one wouldn't latch. I got a pair of decent latches from the boneyard and lubed them until they were smooth, then installed them both. I use spray grease thru the child safety latch hole to keep them that way. As soon as spring gets here, I'm going to take a FRONT door panel off and measure where to drill a hole for my spray grease tube to hit the levers perfectly, then drill BOTH doors and put tape over the holes. The latch body is glass-filled nylon, but the levers are just stamped steel held in by rivets for pivot points and they rust!

00_WJ_4.0

In was able to get the panels off the doors with them stuck closed and I did in fact spray the s*** out of both of them, I reached into the passenger rear door and was able to get that locking mech working and unlocked, the clip that holds onto the lock rod broke in the process but that's whatever at this point. Lock still works via the switch on the front door, the other one however is fubar and broke as well, but in the pivot point on the locking mechanism, which is, in a wonderful bout of engineering, is plastic on metal...

00_WJ_4.0

The black plastic thing to the left in the center of the photo...tried to move it but its stuck