door lock rod problem

[GoMangoBoys]

My son was able to figure out how to reassemble all of the door internal parts last winter.  I got the LH inside door panel put on today and when I was again testing the locks, the rod between the key and the lock mechanism fell off and dropped to the bottom of the door.  I managed to get it back in place, but there seems to be nothing to keep it from happening again.  I looked at the RH side, and it is the same way.  The rod on the bottom end slips into a plastic bushing in the lock mechanism, but there is nothing to securely hold it in place.  Are we missing something?  The picture is of the passenger side.

Also, the interior lock lever seems to only operate the lock when the door is closed.  I cannot lock or unlock the door with it while the door is open.  Is this normal, or do we have something put together wrong?

Thanks

[1970Cuda]

A year back or so I was reassembling my door locks, handles, etc., and ran into a similar issue. What I noticed, again being a novice, is that I was using a new set of rods. They were loose, but when I went back to my originals they worked fine. Also, did you replace the plastic bushing? It is a very tight fit and I am sure I replaced that as part of the door kit. It should not be loose!

Also, as to your second point, yes, the RH and LH locks (and latches) work differently. The LH can be unlocked (when it is locked obviously) from inside the car with the door handle w/o unlocking it. The RH side cannot be unlocked using just the handle. It must be physically unlocked. I was told this was a safety feature from the driver vs. passenger egress, presumably during an accident.

Others might be able to chime in if they have more knowledge than I do.

Picture is LH side.

[Dakota]

70 Challenger door locks can only be locked when the door is fully closed.   See this post:

https://forum.e-bodies.org/interior/6/seo/21271/msg261882#msg261882

This is a "70 only" thing.

[anlauto]

Are they reproduction lock rods ?

[GoMangoBoys]

So I was able to resolve this.  I had 2 problems.  The second was caused by the first.
1.  The horizontal rod from the lock lever to the lock mechanism was bent such that it was dragging hard on the window regulator when the window was down.  This made the lock very hard to move. 
2.  With the window down, I turned the key to unlock and it was hard, so I turned it harder.  This bent the vertical rod from the key lock to the lock mechanism.  With the rod being bent slightly, the rod wanted to pop out on the bottom end every time I tried to unlock with the key. 

First, I fixed the bent horizontal rod.  Then I bent the vertical rod so that it was less than 90 degrees.  This made it a little bit of a hook and it no longer pops out when the key is turned to unlock.