Door latch with double locking antitheft feature

摘要

A vehicle door latch assembly including a pivotal rotor engagable with a striker pin. A pawl is moveable between a blocking position retaining the rotor in engagement with the striker pin, and a release position permitting the rotor to disengage the striker pin. A link is moveable, manually or by means of an electric motor, between a coupled position engaging the pawl and an uncoupled position disengaged from the pawl. The link also engages an actuator member when the link is in the coupled position and is disengaged from the actuator member in the uncoupled position. The actuator member may be operated, when the link is in the coupled position, to move the pawl to the release position by means of the link. A Bowden cable may be connected to an interior operating handle, the link, and the actuator member to permit locking, unlocking, and unlatching from a single operating handle. A lost motion connection may be provided which cooperates with an over-center spring to improve the feel of the operation of the lock of the latch assembly from the interior operating handle. In another embodiment, a single lever is connected to the Bowden cable to be pivoted thereby to selectively cause the link to rotate between the coupled and uncoupled positions, and to axially drive the link to place the latch assembly in the unlatched condition.