When I bought my truck, the door lock cylinder in the driver's door wasn't connected to anything, and just spins. Well, it still isn't connected.

I got ambitious yesterday when I was adjusting my striker, and decided to head out to the junkyard to replace the linkage. The cylinder has a cam on it, which turns a little doodad that is held on with an e-clip. Great. No problem, got that all figured out. My problem is what to do with the linkage. On my passenger door, the linkage goes from the cylinder down into the depths of nowhere, completely out of sight. I've yet to take off the door panel to see if I can see where it actually goes. I'm also worried that the little plastic connectors/bushings in the doors are pooped out and that I'll probably end up breaking them, or they'll be loose.

That leads me to my next question. Does anybody else have factory access panels on their doors right above the latch? I have an approximately 2.5x6 grille on my doors that pops out. I looked at a 79, 84, 85, and a 90 in the junkyard, and the door panels in those were all solid where I have the grille.

Anybody have any experience with that, or has seen the whole linkage assembly for sale? I'm getting tired of crawling across the bench seat to unlock my driver's door after I lock my truck.

 

Worst case scenario, I can try and find a rusted out 89 door with a working lot and gut it.

 

I have the same problem. My drivers door does't lock because the PO pulled it up once to unlock it and the keeper broke off and the rod just flops around. I leave it in there in the down position so people think it is locked but it doesn't lock. The passenger side locks but is a pain to unlock with the key. So, I am going to install an alarm with door lock feature and install an electronic lock actuator on each door so the alarm locks and unlocks it. I'll have an alarm as well.

 

my 93 ramcharger has that access panel thing. i think i might remember seeing one on my 91 but not 100% sure. you can also buy new plastic rod holders. most parts stores may have them in the help section.
this might help you out

 

i also think these might be the clips that break. they look right but you might have to measure the rod diameter to make sure.
http://www.dormanproducts.com/p-10470-703-235.aspx
http://www.dormanproducts.com/p-27077-703-236.aspx

 

Those clips look right. Thank you for the diagram wolfie.