I've owned my 1990 200TDI Discovery for 23 years, and the tailgate lock has just failed, so I can't complain. Symptoms are that the tailgate will lock and unlock from the driver's door central locking with the key. The tailgate will lock with the key in the tailgate door, but it will not unlock. The key just turns anticlockwise with no resistance, then comes to a halt after half a turn. So, after reading many threads on this forum I got a lock spring off Ebay, and started the job with my Factory workshop manual section 76-9, my Haynes Manual, Chapter 12-14 and the instructions from the spring supplier.
I photographed all the linkages, and carefully stripped it down.
What could possibly go wrong? Well, the dumb confession is that with the lock completely free to move and disconnected, I can't get it out of the door. I tried for an hour, up, down, left, right, rotating on all axes. The lock fouls the steel panels. The instructions are to withdraw the lock and the Y lever while they are still connected together. This seems to be because they could not be reconnected once the lock was installed.
It appears to me that if the two were separated, the lock could possibly just be removed, as it's this linkage that fouls up.
So I put the whole lot back.
This may be unique to the tailgate, rather than the other doors. I'd be grateful for any advice on this issue, which really should be the simplest part of this job.
Also, is the broken spring diagnosis likely to be correct with these symptoms?
Many thanks.
Nick.