Land Rover Repair: 1996 Disco Rear Cargo Door, land rover discovery, interior door panel

Question
RE: 1996 Land Rover Discovery - Rear door is shut/latched in a half open/half closed position and will not open from either the exterior or the interior mechanisms.  I recently purchased this truck and it needs TLC.  The rear door would not open from the exterior and only from the interior if I held the lock up and pulled the handle.  I took the lock a part and freed up the exterior handle.  Put everything back together and my Son, thought he was help, closed the door and it latched in the position I described.  Neither the exterior handle or the interior handle will open the door.  How do I get it open to continue to trouble shoot the lock?  On a rover forum I was told that the lock my have a broken spring and the lock will need to be replaced or I can hunt down the spring but it is not sold by Land Rover: they want you to by the lock.  The cylinder also seams to have a key snapped off in it as my key will only go in half way.  I shot penetrating oil in it but that did nothing.

Answer
It sounds like you replaced the linkages in the wrong position.  You will have to remove the interior door panel and sort the linkages out correctly, then you should be able to open the door.  Your initial problem was probably a broken hair spring.  The cheapest way to fix this is to buy a rear door (not tail gate) latch assembly, remove the hair pin spring and put it in your tailgate latch.  The rear door latches are a great deal cheaper.