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Ford Explorer Community - Maintenance - Modifications - Performance Upgrades - Problem Solving - Off-Road - Street
Explorer Forum Covers the Explorer ST, Explorer Sport, Explorer Sport Trac, Lincoln Aviator, Mercury Mountaineer, Mazda Navajo, Ford Ranger, Mazda Pickups, and the Ford Aerostar
My Drivers side door handle in my '95 Explorer wont spring back into place, it kinda just falls. It still opens but i am afraid with time that it wont. How can I fix it to where it will spring back. Anything will help...thanks
my 94 does the same thing on the drivers door been that way for about a year now only way to fix it is to replace it i believe by drilling out the rivets and putting in the new handle and install 2 pop rivets
As common as this appears to be, someone should be able to walk us through a repair, instead of having to pay big $$ to have someone else do it! Please??
Mine is like this as well. A guy at work said i could borrow his door panel puller and see what's wrong. well it's been about 5 months, and i havent gotten around to it, no problems to report yet.
If it's the outer door handle, this is definitely a common problem. The spring wears out or brakes and then the handle just falls down into place - sometimes it causes an irritating sound when driving at higher speeds.
However a replacement isn't really expensive. I bought some for my Explorers for as little as $12.95 or so on Ebay. Of course they were for the 91 - 94 model, but the later models look exactly the same, so I think there can't be much difference.
Maybe you want to check with a junkyard in your veicinity and see if you can find a replacement there...
Take the door panel off and pin point the problem. No need for a door panel puller, if you have a putty knife, that will be fine. Pretty much anything flat with a large surface area. Take the water sheild off check the brackets on the exterior handel, and check the peice of crap design interior handles they are plastic and fail ALOT. When the problem is pin pointed do a search. Its been covered, there is even a poll on interior door handles.
Hi
My drivers door exterior handle has been a bit loose for some months but 2 days ago I found I could not unlock the door with the key or remote. Looked inside and found a broken spring.. The rod that attachs the handle to the door latch is a bit floppy. When held up by about 1/4" the door unlocks OK. I think the handle has worn and elongated the hole where the rod attaches because of the broken spring so am going to have to get a new handle and spring. Has this happened to anyone else and have I diagnosed it right. Could it be the actual latch?
I pulled my door apart today, and the problem is that both springs on each side of the handle have broken, and are laying inside the bottom of the door! Can just these springs be purchased?
I pulled my door apart today, and the problem is that both springs on each side of the handle have broken, and are laying inside the bottom of the door! Can just these springs be purchased?
Hi
My drivers door exterior handle has been a bit loose for some months but 2 days ago I found I could not unlock the door with the key or remote. Looked inside and found a broken spring.. The rod that attachs the handle to the door latch is a bit floppy. When held up by about 1/4" the door unlocks OK. I think the handle has worn and elongated the hole where the rod attaches because of the broken spring so am going to have to get a new handle and spring. Has this happened to anyone else and have I diagnosed it right. Could it be the actual latch?
I have a 98 and had the exact same problem. I had to take it to Ford where they charged me $240 to fix it. I needed a new latch along with some other parts. It drove me crazy cause i fix most everything that goes wrong, but i couldnt figure this one out.
Hi Guys
Well I finally got my handle fixed....
Drilled out the two rivets holding the handle on (awkward as rivets kept spinning) and unclipped the operating rod from the latch.
The two springs on the handle were broken....had to buy a new handle at a cost of GB£30. Part had to come from US but it did come in the specified colour...got two new rivets as well but they had to be ordered separately.
Couldn't fit the rivets as neither I or friends had 1/8" mandrell pop pliers so I bolted the handle on with some bolts,spring washers and nuts.
When fitting the the operating rod back in I found that the door would unlock now but not open.
Problem seemed to be the length of the operating rod. It is held in a plastic clip and it is important how much of it is inserted into the clip. I moved it down about 1/8" and the door handle and unlock works fine now.
Hope this helps
