my damn lock.

[FairladyZS30]

so i think this is preatty common in z's. my door locks dont work ...they just wont go down sometimes(rarely)they will but when i try it it wont ....so my car remains unlocked and that aint good how do i fix this?

[Sailor Bob]

Should be a fair amount of material in "Search". This subject has been up many times befor.

Good luck

[zbane]

Before you run that search on the site, might I suggest shooting your lock cylinders with WD40 (or something similar) to help clean and lubricate your locking mechanisms. While the stuff is working into the system, run the search on locking issues to see where you should look next.

[Ramses]

STOP, don't use WD40. It may work for a while, but after some time the problem comes back and even worse. WD40 gums up after time. There is a black powder that you can use that is designed for locks. I can not remember what it is called. It is something like "lithease". It does not gum up after time.

[sleepyzzz]

STOP, don't use WD40. It may work for a while, but after some time the problem comes back and even worse. WD40 gums up after time. There is a black powder that you can use that is designed for locks. I can not remember what it is called. It is something like "lithease". It does not gum up after time.

correct, graphite powder is what you want

[280z1975]

STOP, don't use WD40. It may work for a while, but after some time the problem comes back and even worse. WD40 gums up after time. There is a black powder that you can use that is designed for locks. I can not remember what it is called. It is something like "lithease". It does not gum up after time.

Graphite Powder? Is that what you are thinking?

Also, I think Teflon-oils works well, plenty of them out there.

[DeesZ]

Graphite powder has worked well for me. I had similar experiences with WD-40 (good in the beginning but poor at the end). I can say that the WD was good for getting 35 years of grunge loose and helping to clean things up a bit. Before using the graphite I suggest getting as much of the WD, etc. off of the surfaces & out of the way. Please let us know how things work out.

[FairladyZS30]

thx guys ()\\//

[TomoHawk]

Ther eare many kinds of Telon-bearing oils, greases and powders. The originals were called Triflow (Teflon-oil) and TriFlon (a dry powder.). I got a tub of Teflon-bearing grease from the autoparts store called OneGrease, from the Slick-50 people. Usesparingly ( get yourself some little cheap paintbrushes.)

While you have your doorpanels off, don't forget to check the keylock itself. Try not to get grease on the glass.

thx.

[Montezuma]

I had similar problems, I just took my door apart to assess my problems. I took the entire door lock and assemble out, cleaned up, greased up some parts and now she is working great although my hands and arms are all torn up, from reaching around inside the door. While I had it apart I drove to Classic Datsun and got me a new door handle(mine was a little pitted). It was fun job and I can glad I did it, now I just need some new dovetails and everything will be like new. Les did not have dovetails in stock.

[projectZ]

i just recently purchased a 73 datsun 240Z and the darn locks dont work on both sides so my car is parked unlocked only with a clutch lock on it. it sux, but can someone pls tell me where to get a set of door locks including the rear hatch.

[TomoHawk]

When I got my 280Z, the dor locks were iffy, and the hatch lock was barely working, so I replaced it with one from an MGA. It's the same deal, but has a thumb pull on it. It uses a different key tho.

I opened the hatch to get to the door lock, until I got the door locks fixed.