I had a rattle in door panel. Took it off, turns out it was the rod going to latch. Well, I put a little wrap around it keep it from rattling against door. The old sleeve that was on there was gone.

But, when I put door panel back on, I cannot unlock door from outside with the key ( heavy resistance when I turn the ke), or using inside lock switch. The switch by the door handle unlocks all the other doors.

When I took door panel back off, unlocks fine.

I took plastic **** off of door lock to see if it is touching something, and it made no difference..

What could cause this? The door panel touches nothing? Other than inside skin of door.

 

On older cars if you do something weird to a door like lock it while the door is open, or hold the handle up and lock it, you can get the mechanism into a weird position and it binds. I would suggest trying a bunch of "normal" things with the door to try and get the linkage back it its right spot. Open/close door, lock/unlock it while closed from inside the car, etc. Also check to see if the little lock indicator at the top of the door is making it through the hole in the door card or if it is jammed.