Obviously exterior door handles are a weak point on these vans, and they're no fun to replace.
I've done several so I'm no newbie, but yesterday's was almost too much.
Replacement was from Dorman. I know their quality varies, but driver's side I did on our 95 was theirs and went well last month, so got one for the driver's side of our 97. Geometry on aftermarket door handles seems to vary wildly, I even had one bought on eBay I didn't install it was so hard to operate. The Dorman I put on the 95 was pretty good and I only had the usual aggravation of manipulating things by feel.
Yesterday went to do the 97. Had to bend the striker (or whatever it's called) to get a smooth operation. But after clearing that hurdle the arm the rod connects to wanted to scrape the window channel (had not bent that at this point). I've had that happen on handles that were square on that end, but this one came rounded. So I ground a bit more off, better - but still scraped. Ground a bit off the window channel, slight improvement but still scrapped.
Here's where I may have gotten into trouble. Bent the area where the rod connects slightly away from the channel. Barely any scraping so I put it together. However, it was real difficult to connect the rod and then put on the handle this way so I put in the handle and then connected the rod. Pretty aggravating but I got better with practice. (And I ended up getting LOTS of practice!) Seemed to work pretty well! Connected all the other rods, tried everything 30 or 40 times before I put the door panel on.
Putting on the door panel, I accidentally hit the power lock switch. Didn't think much of it but tested the door a few more times, about the 3rd time the rod to the handle came out! Aaaarrrrgggg! Pulled the door panel, put rod back in, tested 25 times and it seemed ok. Tried the power lock - rod came out of the handle again! What?? Power lock mechanism doesn't even touch it! (Should mention plastic piece there doesn't have the secondary "latch".)
Feeling around while operating the power lock, it seems depending on where the key lock was last turned the rod for it jumps slightly when the power lock is operated. Still shouldn't touch the handle rod but they're fairly close together. After having the handle rod come out this way a couple more times, I took the mesh sleeve off the key lock rod and couldn't duplicate the problem.
I guess bending the rod connection area on the handle to avoid scraping the window channel I may have gotten it too close to the key lock rod and the mesh must have caught it somehow. I still can't see how, but the problem went away at least so far.
So my rant is back to how often these handles break and how difficult they can be to replace PLUS the poor quality of replacement parts. Seems the handles I got for repairs years ago were better - if I had the problem I had yesterday on my first handle replacement I might not have tried it ever again!
No question to ask here except maybe what source can one count on for a handle that won't need modification? (Hate to pay $100 for a Genuine GM. I do have a used right handle from the junkyard that appears to be original - works very smoothly, going to need that for our 95.)
Maybe the description of my ham handed repair will somehow help someone else.
Rant over.