Old door lock, door latch stuck

[nicolai.vr]

Hello,
I've got a problem with the door latch of a old door. The lock works perfect.
But if you turn the door latch, the pin (How do you cal it?) that goes from the door to de frame; doesn't moves any more. So i can't open the door. I 've tried to stick something between the door and the frame and tried to move it, but there isn't enough space.

The door :

How do i fix this without harming the door to much?

[globallockytoo]

First, relieve any pressure on the latch.

Lift the door from the floor using a wedge or something to lift the door.

Then try to turn the square hub or put the handle and spindle back in there.

It is possible the spindle hub is broken.

[Raymond]

If you can try this door from the inside it may open. (Some locks have two hubs that move independently of each other. One hub may be locked or broken and the other may be usable.) Check the spindle attached to the knob to see if it swivels in the middle. This means it is a two hub model.

Remove door hinge pins so the edge of the door can be reached. This may be the only way to remove a defective lock.

There are other bypass methods that should not be discussed here.

Good luck.

[globallockytoo]

loose pin hinges arent that common in europe.

[mhole]

These faults can either be 2 minute jobs, or take a long time, incorporating lots of swearing and cosmetic damage to the edge of the door and/or frame.

Try gently spreading the gap between the door and frame with wooden wedges. Make the wedges wide, but with a gentle taper, to minimise compression of the wood, and you should be able to open the gap up without badly marking frame or door.

Once you can easily see the latch through the gap, try to push it back with a narrow screwdriver. If it won't move at all, you may be in for a bugger of a job...

[nicolai.vr]

If you can try this door from the inside it may open. (Some locks have two hubs that move independently of each other. One hub may be locked or broken and the other may be usable.) Check the spindle attached to the knob to see if it swivels in the middle. This means it is a two hub model.

Remove door hinge pins so the edge of the door can be reached. This may be the only way to remove a defective lock.

There are other bypass methods that should not be discussed here.

Good luck.

There's only one hub, and it's broken
The other side of the door can't be reached because it's a build in closet

The hings:


So i can't remove them either.

These faults can either be 2 minute jobs, or take a long time, incorporating lots of swearing and cosmetic damage to the edge of the door and/or frame.

Try gently spreading the gap between the door and frame with wooden wedges. Make the wedges wide, but with a gentle taper, to minimise compression of the wood, and you should be able to open the gap up without badly marking frame or door.

Once you can easily see the latch through the gap, try to push it back with a narrow screwdriver. If it won't move at all, you may be in for a bugger of a job...

I'm going to make these wedges right now, i let you know how this works out. But the space is really thight, so i don't hope for it.

Thanks for all the answers, i didn't expected so much help

[Engineer]

I can only wish you luck - I had this happen on my OWN back door last year. I couldn't remove the pins from my hinges and even if I could, it would have done me no good as I had fitted hinge bolts to my doors (talk about making a rod for your own back).

There was nothing at all I could do. I wedged the door and tried the old trick of "walking" the bolt back into the door with an old knife. That didn't work for me either, so I got an old paint scraper (about 1 1/2" or 40mm wide blade) and ground a large slot out of it so it formed an "L" shape.

I slotted the end of the "L" behind the lock and pulled really hard and the bolt sprang back enough for me to get my door open.

Perhaps this trick might help you if nothing else works? Good luck!