Dutch door will not open handle loose

[zipwood]

2003 Safari rear Dutch door is shut and handle will not open. I thought I posted this but, could not find so here it goes again. First off Merry Christmas and all the best in 2017! My rear dutch door is closed and the handle seems to have disengaged from the linkage, ergo, the door will not open. The hatch opens just fine. I just want confirmation that I have to take off the inner cover to get at the linkage. Seems that this is the only way?

Thank you in advance.

[juststartin]

Yeppers, should be pretty obvious once you look inside.

[safariking]

Not sure this video might help https://youtu.be/sOHjMopkXQw

[zipwood]

Thanks for this. this is for the "hatch" my issue is with the dutch door. I do think I have to take the inside door skin off.

[TurnNburn]

Yes the door card needs to come off. Like juststartin said, once you have it opened up it should be pretty obvious. Don't worry if it's broken, that handle is like 10 bucks on Amazon. I just did mine. It's common. Especially when cold.

[Astrofarian]

Another Astro with a broken door handle? This is extremely (and SADLY) common. Be sure to fish the busted pieces out of the bottom of the door cavity, you may even be able to rework/repair the handle so you have a spare. But for $10-15, order a new one for peace of mind.
-M!ke-

[zipwood]

Fixed it! As I suspected the Actual DUTCH DOOR LATCH HANDLE was not broken (nor should it have been as it is only a year old). The linkage that connects the DOOR LATCH to the DOOR HANDLE had simply popped off. To fix this, I popped the top hatch, and was able to CAREFULLY POP off the inside door skin. I used a screw drive to pop the latch.

Opened the door, removed the 4 screws that hold the HANDLE ACCESS COVER. Then I reconnected the linkage. This set up is kind of dumb, it really needs a PRESURE FIT "washer" to hold that linkage better into the handle. Hopefully it will not pop out again anytime soon. I also sprayed a bunch of lube all over everything. If this fails again, I will try to find a pressure fit cotter washer, or maybe even attempt to drill a small hole and insert an actual cotter pin, or I will just use what most of you use: Duct Tape

The images show the linkage 1) Not Inserted and 2) Inserted Note: the white Nylon pressure fit and how easily the linkage can pop out.





Hop this helps someone with this simple issue.

[Astrofarian]

Glad I was wrong....and of course, glad to hear you got it fixed!
-M!ke-

[zipwood]

Well it is March 2017 and just an update on the DUTCH DOOR LINKAGE ISSUE. FYI that linkage just pressure fits into a nylon seat. There is no cotter pin or anything. So of course what happened once happened again, the linkage popped out. The only real quick fix was a whack of duct tape. Uggg! But whatever it works. I think the "aftermarket" handle is a bit off spec or my the linkage itself has worn a bit. I guess his is what one can expect with a Vehicle that has about 435,000 km on and a back door that has opened probably 10,000 times. All the best