the front door latch

[Valkyrie_2]

My bus has a manual door opener. There's a latch that drops when the door is closed. It looks as though it would be useful to rig some way of lifting that latch when entry is desired.

How have others managed? Im sure a handle on the outside of the door would allow me to close and lock it from the outside.

 

[timbrass]

My bus has a manual door opener. There's a latch that drops when the door is closed. It looks as though it would be useful to rig some way of lifting that latch when entry is desired.

How have others managed? Im sure a handle on the outside of the door would allow me to close and lock it from the outside.

I am in same position. When the handle goes back to the closed position the latch clicks behind a small plate. I'm going to cut a 2cm piece of tube to hold the latch up - the door would stilt be locked. I still need a way to pull the bar towards the front and was going to drill a hole into the engine compartment. I'm also going to fit a Yale lock on back door but am going to put a bed across the back so would only use as a door in emergency.

On the manual door question I was wondering if I could rig up a remote control unit to pull the bar back.

 

[Valkyrie_2]

I noticed I can simply slam the front door to lock it. I wonder whether it would be possible to feed bowden cable through a sleeve akin to bicycle brake cables and to attach that to a lock so that by "locking" the lock, the latch can be opened.

 

[jazty]

I'm not sure about Bluebirds and Carpenter bodies, but my Thomas conventional had a latch to the right of the door, under the front windshield that would operate that latch mechanism with a cable.

 

[mad_wolf]

My bus has a manual door opener. There's a latch that drops when the door is closed. It looks as though it would be useful to rig some way of lifting that latch when entry is desired.

How have others managed? Im sure a handle on the outside of the door would allow me to close and lock it from the outside.

Not sure excatly what you are looking at but I used a Solenoid on one of my sailboats to unlach the door with a hidden switch . I buy things of that nature from several places but this one has assorted items that may work .

http://www.sciplus.com/s/c_7/sf_65

. look around the site they have powered seat motors ,actuators and dc motors

http://www.sciplus.com/s/c_15/sf_138

. So far in the last 6 years have been satified with my purchases from them .

 

[Dragonpop]

In the mid-Eighties Ford on their pickups had a hood release handle with a key lock in the handle which prevented
the hood from being opened without first inserting the key and unlocking the handle. You could use the handle and
cable to achieve your desired results. When wrenching on one of these we would pull the handle out partially and
re-lock the handle which kept it in the unlocked position for ease of service as well.