Thread: tailgate wont open after vehicle is locked

Was it this lock that has a problem with a broken spring?

See door lock spring replacement

See Disco 1 tailgate locking spring replacement steps (with photos)

I am sure KLR Automotive have the springs. I saw some out there and asked what they were. Brad said they had the replacement springs made for them.

Originally Posted by 354 chamberlain

.... I have the old one can I test it by pluging it into the harness and activating the locks and what should I be looking for ?
Doug

See my post in another thread on the same issue. Hopefully that's the issue.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/technical...ml#post2832568

I'll update this again a little. As you've said you have one in your hand(your old one).
I just had another play with the one I have now.
Note that the one I have is the non working one out of brothers car, the one in the pics in the link is the working one.
We changed brothers over to the working one a while back now... working fine.

While I was playing around with the broken one, an easy mod that shouldn't affect the working of the unit would be to lock the metal locking lever hard to the plastic locking section.
You'd need to see and read the link to understand it.
The metal locking lever pivots on the inner plastic locking section via the spring returns to it's resting spot.
Basically, with the door central locked, the lock tab on the door is useless, to unlock it manually.
The lock tab in the door, the small tab poking up the door frame, only works in the lock direction. if it's locked, the door lock tab does nothing other than lift the pivoting locking lever up, but doesn't move the plastic locking lever.
I reckon a small holed drilled through the meal lever and a small self tapper through it to the plastic section would be enough to lock the metal lever section to the plastic locking section.
Remember the plastic section does all the work on the lock itself. The metal section only works to lock the latch manually, but not unlock it manually if the locks have been central locked(that I know of).

I have mine out of course, but I can't confirm if it works like this as my parts D2 is all in pieces, so no power to it.

The mod won't help with the operation of the central locking bit not working, but as a 'last resort' would force the lock mechanism to unlock via the pull tab on the door from the inside.
Why LR thought this design was required .... is hard to fathom.
It'd kind of make sense to protect stuff in the cargo area in that you can't unlock it from the inside, but the problem is once Mr thieving scum is inside, the point becomes moot .. they're already inside! Horse having bolted situation!
Would kind of make sense if say it was for protecting kids, but again, the mechanism for that is the child proof tab, which they can't get too. Child proof tab is only relevant for the inside open release, and is up to allow the inside release to open the door from the inside.

As the lock I have is currently not working, I'm going to muck about with it a bit more and see what I can make of it.
I don't think the links p38rover supplied apply to the D2, and are for the D1.

Also, if both locks don't work via the central locking system, then there is a very high chance that it's doing weird things. Maybe an electrical connection or something.
How did you get it to finally open?
Is the issue a random one, sometimes does, sometimes doesn't work? That was brothers issue. Would randomly just not unlock, and he's work around was:
1/. continuously lock unlock till it finally caved in and unlocked
2/. he'd drilled a hole in his door trim. Note tho, not recommended for most cars, but his has an aluminium plate for a inner door trim, not exactly well fitted(by a previous owner). Skin is well done, just the fixing not very good. To sacrifice a little bit of looks for now wasn't a problem.
I reckon the issue with his was just an old and worn unit. There's far too much lateral play in the links and pivots in his old(now my spare) unit.

Thank you for that very detailed answer, I now have it working but dont trust it so I will have a look at the old one and see how your mod works. I checked the old one by plugging it in and found that it has a strong engage (lock) movement but a very weak retract ,will look to try and find the cause of that and then post results . Not sure what I did to make the new one work but maybe it was the plugging and unplugging removing a bit of corrosion on the pins . I am starting to understand why it is called a discovery as I am discovering reserves of patience I never thought I had . Although it is 20 years old I think it is far superior to a lot of current off road vehicles on the market today .
Doug