Broken Door Latch

[ABnormal]

Learned a valuable lesson last night. I went to pick up the coach at Freightliner after having preventive maintenance on the engine. The door would not open. Both of the dead bolts were working, but the latch would not open. Called a locksmith and he could not open it either. The outside door latch cannot be removed from the outside. He tried to unlock a window with a coat hangar and that was a waste of time. I called Newell 24 hour maintenance and they asked if the door had been exposed to direct sunlight or if it was a very warm day. Negative on both counts. Mike advised there is no way to enter my coach short of removing a front windshield.

The locksmith finally noticed that the lock on the window over the booth was only partially locked. By banging on the window a couple of times, the window latch dropped to the unlocked position and he was able to crawl thru to the inside. Apparently the door latches for the 1987 Newell is made by Ford and is still orderable. We shall see.

The lesson learned: I will never again lock every window on the coach. The left windshield is cracked and needs to be replaced eventually, but I also understand they are very difficult to find.

Larry P.

[tuga]

Larry,

I never had a door latch fail, but I did get locked INSIDE my Newell once.

I was dry camping in a little town in Tennessee, and I locked the dead bolt on the entrance door before I retired for the evening.

Next morning the sun was shinning brightly on the door, and I forgot that it was locked! I pulled the door handle and it opened about 1/4" and was jambed against the deadbolt strike. I tried to close the deadbolt and it wouldn't budge! I considered climbing out of the window and walking around to unlock the deadbolt by pushing on the door. The heat from the sun had expanded the aluminum door.

Just a few minutes later, I yelled to a fellow walking by and asked for his help. He pushed on the door while I turned the deadbolt latch inside. The door popped open, and I was a happy camper.

On a different note: I have heard that Newell has a supply of older windsheilds in stock.

Have you tried calling them?

[jwe648]

You can actually get in thru the outside latch with a wire and hook the mechanism but very hard to do... My outside latch broke .. & got in...
If you need a new latch it is made by Ford and was used on several models..

I purchased mine on eBay .. much cheaper.. $ vs $$$. If you search some of my old post you'll find the P/N.. for the latch...

[chockwald]

A couple of weeks ago I had the awning rolled up and the morning direct sunlight caused the door to expand and we couldn't unlock it. Quick solution was to spray the door with cold water for a couple of minutes, and it unlocked easily. First time it's happened to me. Tuga, haven't been locked in yet....that's a good one!

[Wally Arntzen]

I had to replace mine about 4 years ago and got it from Newell, I now carry a spare just in case. I also had my windshields replaced last year and the glass company did not have any trouble locating them. Mine is na 88 and probably the same as your coach.

[encantotom]

there is an entire thread on this topic for the door expanding. i slowly shaved down the side of the door and repainted it each time and when the sun was on it and it stuck again the paint came off and i repeated the process until no more sticky door.

tom

[RFeldes]

Hi Tom, Been trying to answer your p message but not sure it got through. Please let me know,
Ralph