1934 door latches

[31aford]

I have a 34 Tudor with the center mount door handles. The drivers door you have to pull the handle to open passenger side you push to open. I removed the latches and the drivers side has an extra pivot. Is this normal or do I have a wrong latch. The other odd thing is both doors have the small toggle like handle to lock the door from the inside. Any help would be much appreciated.

[DavidG]

Both doors are lockable from the inside with little upside-down, teardrop-shaped nickel plated handles, but only the passenger side door is lockable from the outside, hence the different construction of the latches from one side to the other (symmetrically opposite except for the outside locking capability).

[31aford]

Originally Posted by DavidG

Both doors are lockable from the inside with little upside-down, teardrop-shaped nickel plated handles, but only the passenger side door is lockable from the outside, hence the different construction of the latches from one side to the other (symmetrically opposite except for the outside locking capability).

So is what I have right. I get the tear drop handle operation except if you lock the passenger door from the inside and close the door you won't be able to unlock the door with the key

[fourfords]

You are correct 31aford. I made that mistake. Fortunately, I left the cowl vent open ('33 Ford has no vent screen) and snaked a coathanger to the door handle. Whew!

[mercman from oz]

All very interesting and educational. I have enlarged this picture so that you can see the slight differences easily.

[johnboy34]

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I put on the other post, I think the left one was made by "Swiss" and the other made by "Ford". Different suppliers for different body plants? Design change during prodution? I always figured they got changed to be pulled to open, instead of pushing. Most people were probably used to pushing to lock, these latches do not (they have a separate inside lock) and if they pushed it to lock while underway the door would fly open!

[31aford]

I just checked and both my latches were made by Swiss.

[Terry,OH]

As you are aware there are various different styles in operation for the 34 Ford. You could look for one like this one pictured below, which seems to match your LH. or another LH to match the RH. When each car came out of the factory the door latches were all alike in operation.

[johnboy34]

Exactly what two of us are trying to do. We both have the same ones so we can't trade one! Do you have some for sale?

[Terry,OH]

I do not have any 34 latch mechanism for sale. Why not place a wanted ad on fordbarn.com. Maybe you already have. Post one on the V8 Club site also.