C1 door lock position

[Garry Barnes]

What direction should the internal lock wing knob be pointing to be "judged" factory correct for '56-'62. The lock has a wing design and I have seen in the service manual that it points to 7 o'clock. Other pictures that I see show it pointing to 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock and 6 o'clock in Nolands book in the '58 section. There is nothing in the AIM to refer to that I can find. Which one is correct? (I know, put it at 8 o'clock and get a life) Thanks!
Garry

[roy braatz]

Re: C1 door lock position

8 o'clock is a great time ,but I use 9 O'clock because my clock is a little fast.

[Dennis C.]

Re: C1 door lock position

Gary, I'd agree with Roy's suggestion to index it at about 9:00. If you study your owner's manual, what this indexing does is helps satisfy the verbal instruction on how you lock or unlock your door. When writing the Operation's Manual, there seemed to be a need to "lock in" on the indexing of that little piece of pot metal. Were they all installed exactly that way? I'd never venture a guess... It falls into the same catagory as the indexing of the spinners on the wheel covers vs the valve stem hole. I can imagine how much sleep the asy line workers lost over these items. zzzzzzzzzzz, Best, Dennis

[Calvin M.]

Re: C1 door lock position

Hi Garry -
The 56 -57 AIM shows it at 6 o'clock in 3 different drawings. The 57 Operations Manual shows it at 3 o'clock, and has this description:

"To lock the door from the inside, rotate the lever so that the arm points down. When the arm is pointed to the front or to the rear, the door is unlocked."
If its any consolation, I remember agonizing over this one also. After looking at some cars and reference materials, I settled on the arm at 3 when unlocked.
Cal

[Garry Barnes]

Re: C1 door lock position

Thanks guys for your feedback. When my car was judged last May I had a point deducted for the lock "pointing in the wrong direction". Of course the judge discussed this with me and of course I have since forgotten what was said and he didn't note the corrected position on the judging sheets. Every point counts right? Thanks again.

[John M.]

Re: C1 door lock position

Gary,
The key is that the lever should point to the 6 o'clock position when locked. I belive that you will find that that means that the lever will point to the rear of the car or 3 O'clock position in the unlocked position if everything is put together right.

Regards, John McGraw

[John M.]

To further confuse you

In addition to all of the above, the range of motion from locked to unlocked is about 45 degrees! This means that either 3 o'clock or 6 o'clock is wrong! When you look at the PV manual, it says that the lever should point to the rear of the car and be aproximately level when in the unlocked position and the lever should move downward to lock the door. At no point does it state that the locked position should be at any defined position, it merely states that the handle should move downward from the rear pointing position. If memory serves me right you can make the locks move downward from the forward facing position if you assemble the door locks incorrectly.

Regards, John McGraw

[Garry Barnes]

Re: To further confuse you

John,
It sounds to me like if it is somewhere near 3 o'clock in the unlocked position and it locks when you move it downwards, then that should be close enough for Gm work. Right? Thanks.
Garry

[Dennis C.]

Re: To further confuse you

OK Guys... The owner's manual states that you push down on the lever to lock the door. You lift the lever to unlock the door. The only way this can be done is to index the driver's side @ 9 o'clock unlocked - and index the passenger's side at 3 o'clock unlocked.

This pattern is somewhat duplicated with the exterior door lock, in that to lock, you rotate the key to the rear or either side.

Suggest the easy way to relate to the interior lock is: It's just like cars with push/pull button locks. Lift to unlock - push down to lock.

Point the arms toward the rear of the car.

[Calvin M.]

Re: To further confuse you

Hi Dennis -
I may be missing something, but it seems that your Owners Manual description can also be achieved by having the driver's lock lever pointed to 3 when unlocked. And that's where the lever is on the open (ie unlocked) driver's door pictured on p.14.
What do you think? Thanks,
Cal

[Dennis C.]

Re: To further confuse you

Yo Cal... My apologies for this, but if you go sit in the front seat drivers side of your car and study this issue for a while, I believe you will see that if the lever is at 9 o'clock and you push down to lock - THEN, if you re-index it to 3 o'clock, you will need to lift up on it to make it lock. In other words, we are dealing w/a counter clockwise issue to lock on the driver's side and a clockwise issue to lock on the passenger side. As an aside, there are enough mistakes in the Owner's Manual to make you wonder who wrote it. "Floating" instrument gauges upon turning the ignition key off, etc... Best, Dennis

[Mike M.]

Re: To further confuse you

could it be that the author of said judging manual/ P.V. manual resides on the north side of the Dalles, Wash?

[Art A.]

Re: To further confuse you

Dennis, I can tell you who writes the owners manuals, because my x used to write do it (not for the model years in question but later models) and she doesn't know an instrument panel fron a floor panel.

Art

boyamigladshesmyx

[Dennis C.]

Re: To further confuse you

Thanks Art... Good to hear from you. Best, Dennis

[Dennis C.]

Re: To further confuse you

Somebody please cut this guy off...RE: Member #14