door handle replacement, I did it a little differently

[Mr_Bowtie]

I care Bowtie

Jasen has enough love for the both of us !!

*edit...I DO know I've described removing the handle, just not a play by play

I have described it once before on here too as a pain in the azz!

[Jasen]

Glad we could help Jeff, as well as quiet the wimminz

[AstroCan]

Next time put hockey tape over the sharp edges and your hands will be fine.

[gerard]

Thank you for your post, switched my drivers handle almost stress free.

[gillbates]

This job is something that people with little hands would be best at. There's several things I noticed that may help someone else.

Someone mentioned sitting on the ground. That sounded like it wouldn't work when I read it. The exact position is sitting on your butt with your back against the drivers seat. You can slide a leg under you butt and shift around a little if you start getting stiff or whatever but being that low puts you at the best angle to see what you need to see and the reach is perfect for a normal sized guy. If you're little, get a phone book.

There are two rods I had to take off. I used a large screwdriver to pop them off. There was nothing to unclip. The first one attaches to the door handle. There is an access hole, the size of a quarter, just below the latch on the door ( At least on the 97). Pop the Rubber cover out. If you peer through there you can see the lower nut. If you manipulate the handle, while peering through the access hole, you can see the rod that needs to be popped attached to the handle mechanism. I believe I stuck the screw driver through the access hole to pop that rod off. If I came from the inside of the door I watched through the access hole. Either way pop that one off. You can use a 10mm socket to take the lower nut off through that hole too.

The other rod you can see from the sitting on ones butt position I mentioned earlier. It's vertical, running from the top of the door to the back side of the key lock in the door. Pop it off at the back of the key lock. Use an open end 10mm wrench to remove the top bolt. Hopefully you can spin it off after it gets loose. Don't worry about dropping the nuts as it will happen. You should buy one of those $10 sears magnetic pick up tools anyway. Usually they just drop to the bottom where they are easy to find.

To get the new handle on I spun the bottom nut on a few turns. Next, I went to the sitting position and had my wife stand outside by the handle. I had her guide me, my finger pressing the nut against the sheet metal, into position (which she did OK after I explained that I couldn't see which way her finger was pointing). Once the nut was in the correct location I had her place the threads against the nut and carefully spun it and it caught, then I just spun it tight. I did the same with the bottom one. After that it was simple to tighten using a ratchet on the bottom nut and an open end wrench on the top nut until they were both tight. I popped the vertical rod in first ( I ripped the annoying white netting off first. If someone knows what the purpose of the netting is, let me know). Don't forget to get your flashlight out of the door before putting the trim back on.

[Moose]

Very good info Jasen! Very helpful.