Manual Door Lock issue

[67CudaBob]

I have had my car (67 Dart GT Ragtop) for 2-1/2 years and something happened today that surprised me. I have always had to lock the doors with the key from the outside. (if the door is closed, the lock knobs work fine inside the car, but when I open the door, I am unable to depress the knob, so I simply shut the door and lock with my key from the outside).

Today I walked up to the car thinking it was unlocked (but it wasn't) and I just pushed in the thumb knob of the door handle, and as I did, I saw the lock knob pop up and the door unlocked and opened. All this time, I never needed a key to unlock my car. But - that only works on the driver door - the passenger door will not unlock from the outside without the key.

Being a convertible, I don't keep anything valuable in the car - and it is not a show car, but I still would prefer to be able to lock it.

Any thoughts on what is causing this and is this a simple fix?

Thank you-

 

[mguner]

You have too much of a bend in a rod or for some other reason you are only getting partial travel in the lock rod. It could even be a dirty or worn latch assembly. Seems like there is a little clock spring to help get the door locks over center and back. Try a good latch cleaning and lubrication.