Triumph Repair: door auto lock, door latch, wd 40

Question
QUESTION: Hi there I have a question I just got my first spitfire 1972 mark 4 still learning about it. When I shut the doors on either side the door automatically lock up it this normal the guy I got it from said it always does that. Any way to make it stop.. .


ANSWER: Hi Mark,
Are you saying the lock locks or you mean the door just sticks and you have to bump it to get it to open?
I would guess it just sticks and you have to bump it to open it. You need to clean the striker and paint a coat of white grease on all of the contact points and look closely to see if the door is just out of alignment. Close and open the door several times and closely examine the white lube to see what is rubbing on what, then if adjusting the door mounts would correct this then that is what you need to do. If it is all in the latch then clean the latch with a spray can of WD-40 or such and lube with a grease. The main way you are going to correct the problem is to be able to see in the white grease patterns what is rubbing on what.
Howard

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QUESTION: I mean the lock locks everytime I close the door on either side on the outside. from the inside I can pull the handle and it let me out no problem. I have locked my keys in the car now a few times and looking to correct the problem. I wanted to know if this sounds normal or not. If there is any solution to keep the locks from self locking. thanks Howard for your time and help

Answer
If the lock locks each time you close the door, you need to look at the door latch unit. They normally are riveted together and are not serviceable. However you need to remove them to see if any thing can be done to tighten up the unit where the lock part moves. As I remember it slides back and forth and has some tension on the sliding part. If that slid has lost it's tension than it can slide too easily and thus lock each time the door is slammed. I don't think you can disassemble that part but you may be able to bend it slightly so it will not slid too easily. Another possible is that the operation rod from the inner door handle is bent or loose in it's guides (most were plastic)that may cause the lock to move each time the door is slammed. To test this remove the inner door panel and remove the long rod that operates the lock from the inner door handle and then slam the door several times to see if it still auto locks. If it does not auto lock then you may have to modify that long rod to correct the problem, but that will at least give you a method to isolate the problem to a smaller area and thus find a correction.
Don't rule out the key tumbler to lock connection as there may even be something wrong there but that would still auto lock when the long rod is removed if it were in that area. The lock part is not high tech so you should be able to see what is wrong with the door panel off.
Let me know.
Howard