For once this was an easy fix and I feel dumb bringing it to this forum.  Sorry. Few blasts of break cleaner and then some Gibbs lubricant has it working again.  Thanks for all the help.

 

Like once a teacher said: there are no stupid questions, there are only stupid students that don't ask.. 

Now.. You do know that when things get older it sometimes needs some lube... oeps..😂

3 hours ago, dutchzcarguy said:

Like once a teacher said: there are no stupid questions, there are only stupid students that don't ask.. 

That might be true of teachers, but it wasn't true for my bosses.

I've been following this thread because I have a closing issue as well.  It's good to see an outcome like this.

These late 77-78 latches are different than the earlier ones, but the single most powerful thing I done that often changes a door that won’t latch into one that latches easily is to lubricate the mechanism. It HAS to rotate freely or it will have trouble getting to the “2nd stage” latched all the way position. 

Glad it turned out to be nothing serious.  zkars is correct your latch is quite different than my 240z.  Sorry to mislead you.  I also learned a trick from Zed Head which was worth the price of admission to this thread.