63 passenger ashtray won’t release

[Kenneth Barton]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been working on freeing up the passenger side ashtray on my 63. You can push the ashtray in all over the unit and it won’t release. The only way to get it to flip down is to push the top of the trip lever assembly manually through the glovebox.

I smushed the pictured stretched string back somewhat but no dice. I also messed with the fore and aft adjustment to no avail. I haven’t else a clue where to begin with this. Curiously enough, there was a factory defect tag hanging from the ashtray lightbulb wire.

Thanks for reading.

[Jason Edge]

The 1963 Cadillac RH ashtray was a mess to say the least. There were at least 3 fixes in the Serviceman Bulletins as I recall, and different configurations depending where in the production run the car was built. We have all the 63 Model Year Serviceman Bulletins (Oct 1962 to August 1963) that will cover the ash tray in different sections. Unless we have some experts that have recent experience you might check them out in the Literature tab at top.  Needless to say with so many updates you can basically ignore the shop manual on this one. In 1964 it was a much more elegant, simpler S shaped spring designed and really  never heard of anyone having issues with it. With that design the entire framework was different so it is not like you can just put a 1964 RH ashtray in a 1963 Cadillac.  I do have boxes of parts and may be able to help yo out on some on the latch pieces. 

[Russ Austin]

Wrap some electrical tape around the top post. The ash tray adjustable are strikes the top post when you push the ash tray back.  Be sure the plastic cam rotates freely. 

When you push the ash tray back, the spastic cam rotates down, holding the latch up allowing the door to open.  When you close the door, the cam gets pushed up so the latch closes. The adjustable striker should not touch the ash tray as you gently close the ash tray. 

[Kenneth Barton]

Thank you both, gents.

Jason, I browsed through the service bulletins and was only able to find two pertinent articles; one describes how the lighter may block opening, the other describes a remedy for rattling sounds.

Russ, I will try wrapping tape around the top "release" post of the trip lever and report back. I tried bending the striker plate up a little on the black metal but no avail.

I'm starting to think that this factory defect tag was a bellwether! 

[Kenneth Barton]

Also for anyone reading, here is the Serviceman bulletin related to the linkages, thanks to the club here:

[Jason Edge]

Here are the pages dedicated to the "wonderful" 1963 RH ash tray in the Nov 1962 Serviceman Bulletin:

[Kenneth Barton]

Amazing! I missed this one in the archives, somehow. Thanks Jason!