How do you remove boot lock button?

[Bumpa]

I'm trying to tidy up the satin black panel on the rear of the boot lid but I can't see how to remove the button assembly. Haynes unhelpfully says to rotate the locking ring through 90 degrees and withdraw. But which part is the locking ring and how do you get your fat fingers in to turn it once you've found it?

[Robert 352]

The first time I tried to remove that lock I too was baffled. It was not until I removed the boot lid from the car and sat it on the bench did it become obvious what was meant by the locking ring.

The locking ring sits below the red spring and I have arrowed it here in the photo. You will also need to remove the pin, nut and washer holding the striker tag, marked in this photo with the key number 914 before you extract the lock from the lid itself.

Then it is just a case of using something like a flat bladed screwdriver passed down through the gap you show in your photo and easing the ring round through 90 degrees.

I save my spare locks keeping the tag on the assembly so I can match it to keys and the glove box lock.

Robert

[Bumpa]

That's helpful Robert, thanks. Does the locking ring go clockwise or anticlockwise, or can it go in either direction?

[xvivalve]

There is another design of lock which instead of the ‘red’ torsion spring and lock ring, it has a two eared sprung collar on which the two ears need squeezing together to release the lock. This later type are far simpler to install as they push in which compresses the ears which spring out to retain the lock once they pass the inner face of boot lip

[Bumpa]

Thanks to the advice here I have removed the lock button assembly and can now tackle the minor corrosion around it. Following on from what Alun said, I have the parts book for Dolomite from 1976 on. It only shows the later type of assembly that you described. My car is a 1977 model but still has the earlier type. No wonder I couldn't make sense of it!