Greyhound5 wrote:

Thanks for the help guys. Now if anyone can tell me how to get my D2 drivers door jammed latch un-jammed, so I can get into it that would be great. Me thinks that's a question for a different web site though.

I take drives to Abilene KS. every 6 or 8 weeks to pick up Greyhounds to foster. Thats about 3 hours round trip. That will be a much better test.

Depending how its managed to jam itself, you might get more luck trying to undo it with the key once the battery is disconnected. Most likely cause of it being jammed is some sort of superlocking failure.

I had to go through 4 different drivers door locks (mostly ebay "tested and working") ones before I ended up getting annoyed with it and deciding to buy a new one instead (every one of them failed to lock, couple of them had other failures as well, but that one fault was consistant across all of them). The new one worked fine, so clearly every one of the used ones wasn't as well tested as they were supposed to be.

I'd take it your jammed state means it won't unlock?

Hey Brian, Thanks for the response. I know this isn't really the place to be talking about Discos.
Yes this was an eBay "tested, working" latch. Wanted to be sure, so I tested it mechanically and the switch contacts on the bench. The latch felt a little funny somehow but not bad. I cleaned it up and lubed it, it felt better and worked smoother.

Installed it and it didn't close or latch, so I adjusted the strike out and put a shim behind it. Well it closed, latched and door alignment was fine. Hasn't opened since.
It locks and almost unlocks with the key. It will unlock fully with the inside release. It will not unlock fully pulling up on the lock sill button. It will lock with the remote but not fully unlock with the remote, only almost unlock. The same with the Nanocom and the dash pushbutton.

I still have the door card off and have the exterior rod and interior cable disconnected so I can operate the release levers by hand. None of this has helped.
At this point it feels like the release levers are no longer doing anything. I have tried putting pressure on the door from both the outside and inside, tried operating the super lock and lock motors with the Nanocm. It is stuck and will nor release.
I have given up and tried cutting through the strike but I can only cut the front rod. The rear one is too close to the B pillar and I have nothing that will get to it.

I'm completely out of ideas and tools to break into this thing except to cut a hole in the door so I can hack away at the latch until I can get to the cam that engages the strike.
Then buy another door, have it painted and get a new OEM latch.

Not tried personally, but taking the seat out from the inside and then removing the door card might be a better method. At least if you can find another door card, destroying it from that side might be easier to put right afterwards. Not sure how easy it would be to remove the seat without being able to open the door though. Not sure if you can access the bolts for the strike plate though the door pillar, but I'd doubt it.

At a guess, your shim might be just causing enough pressure on the latch to prevent it unlocking fully somehow, though hard to see how without having it apart. Not exactly like you could remove any pressure from the door pillar either if that was the case.

I assume it's the same on a Disco but on a P38 you can take the rear door off and cut through the loop that the latch striker hooks around. Someone made up a tool for doing it using a steel tube with the end of it shaped to fit over the loop then use a drill down the centre of the tube. That stops it slipping off while trying to get the drill started.

The door card is off. I never re-installed it before testing the door closer. The structure of the door on a Disco is a little more difficult to work with than a P38. The latch sits well inside the structure and the window frame is in the way. As a matter of fact it has to be removed to change the latch and that can't be done if the door is closed.
Gil, I have had the rear door off. Had to cut through the check strap because I couldn't get the pin out.
There is a fair amount of difference between Discos and P38's in design. Things tend to be thinner and more compact to maximize interior space while keeping the exterior a bit smaller.
The front door exterior skin when closed almost completely covers the latch strike. I was able to cut through the outer bar of the strike at the expense of some door edge damage but the inner bar is too close to B pillar to cut with a reciprocating saw and there is no room to get anything else in to that spot.

Thanks everybody for your replies and willingness to help. At this point it is parked for the winter and there it will sit until warmer weather returns.
Also, this really is off-topic and not the place to talk about Discovery's. So again, thank you but I think it best if I drop this issue here.