The door lock is very tight, so locking/unlocking the car bends the car key. Probably it needs some oil out there. Can you suggest any clear instructions? Do I have to disassemble the door panel like is described here? Where else should I put grease once I am there?

P.S. My 240 '87 wagon has manual windows lifters.

 

Dont think oiling your lock will help if it is tight. You will need to change the lock itself.

 

you can squirt some liquid lock graphite ('lock-ez' or similar) into the key slot from the outside, insert/remove a key a bunch of times, and wipe off any excess, if thats whats stiff.

 

Well, it's not hard to insert the key. The problem is with rotating the key after I insert it -- I have to apply such torque, that I can see that my key is slowly getting crooked.

sicnarf, could you please explain why oiling wouldn't fix the problem?

 

does the lock work easily when you lift/press the plunger inside? if THATS stiff, then you'll need to take the door apart, and its rather a pain on a 240.

if its just the lock cylinder thats stiff to turn, the liquid graphite lock stuff will likely free it up. wiggle the key back and forth, remove it, squirt some more in, insert the key, wiggle it, til it comes free. worked great on our 87 240.

 

The lock works pretty easily when I press the plunger. I will try to get the liquid graphite then, thanks!

Actually, there is another issue -- sometimes lifting the plunger does not open all other doors, and sometimes it does. I wonder if this can be addressed easily?

 

the plunger on the drivers door works a momentary contact switch when its lifted all the way up, and another when it goes all the way down. these two switches in turn go to a pair of relays, which I think are behind the central air vent buried deep in the dashboard, and they in turn fire the lock solenoids on the other 3 doors and the trunk.

if you wanted to do some electrical troubleshooting with a voltmeter, I could probably dig out wire colors and stuff from the greenbook.

 

Thank you, Pierce. The liquid solution for locks helped and made things easy.

Regarding door openers, I've figured out that I just have to pull the plunger to the very end to open the doors. May be the contacts there are getting worn out, but so far things work if I pull it as far as I can.