Motor vehicle lid or door lock

Abstract

A motor vehicle lock, especially a tailgate lock in which the opening motion can be triggered by a pure switching measure and then proceeds automatically without fault, preferably without using microswitches. This motor vehicle lock has a lock latch (1) with a front catch (3) and a main catch (4), a detent pawl (6, 6') with a catch projection (9) and an actuating surface (10), as well as a drive element (11) and a driver (12, 12') located thereon. The driver (12, 12') strikes an actuating surface (10) by turning in one direction and lifts the catch projection (9) of the detent pawl (6) out of the main catch (4) and turns off the drive after the lifting process, with the detent pawl (6, 6') remaining in the lifted position. Importantly, the catch projection (9) of the detent pawl (6) overlaps the lock latch (1) on the front catch (3) when the detent pawl (6, 6') is lifted out of main catch (4), and by shifting lock latch (1) into the open position, the detent pawl (6) is moved further into an overtravel position. In the overtravel position, the driver (12) is then released by the detent pawl (6) and is moved into its initial position or another position which no longer influences detent pawl (6). Essentially, a mechanical scanning of the open position of the lock latch is created which makes use of a microswitch superfluous.