Open Sesame!

With the aftermarket ignoring the Forward Look era, there is a huge amount of study and contempaltion involved when stubborn restorers choose different methods to resurrect cars that should have been scrapped. NOS replacement door latches are rare to non-existent and most of the original star-wheel parts are severely worn in high mileage cars, so we clean, lubricate, adjust and then try to get by with worn junk...while a few do like me and adapt modern systems!

The bear claw latches themselves proved easy to install, but I was on my own to design a method to open them using the stock door handles. The first job was to choose a system that functioned while incorporating readily available parts from current vehicles and trying to keep most of the car appear close to stock. Original latches had complicated hardware to open the doors, but newer cars almost exclusively use cables with bear claw latches, so I chose a cable from a Ram truck that would help keep the project Mopar. Since it’s been used on trucks for several years, replacement parts should be available for many more, if needed. It’s about the right length, and the ends terminate in a very common way with a crimped barrel on one end and a ball on the other. Since there is more room on the latch end, I'll use the larger barrel-end inside the door, so I'm in the process of designing and fabricating a prototype that will actuate the latch from both outside and inside.

I need a system that will allow the latch to open with either handle, and will be robust enough to survive daily use while having a tactile feel somewhat like an original factory part when operated from both sides of the door.

This picture is the first prototype. It requires springs to retain the latch actuating lever and cable arms in a retracted position and also keep them from rattling. I would have liked to use the homemade  torsion spring visible in the picture, but they twist the arms too much. For the next version,  I ordered a box of extension springs in different sizes that should allow me to select better parts. They will be here today.

This version also used thinner metal to form the bracket, but I have 14-gauge sheet metal on order so the next iteration will be sturdier and simpler to make.