Back door won't open from inside

[Malchi]

Ok, on my '91 the left rear door won't open from the inside. I have already made sure the child lock was off. I pulled the door panel off to look at it, but I can't see very good in there to figure out how it works.

Anyone had this problem before and can give me an idea how to fix it? Do I need another latch assembly? I tried soaking the whole thing down with WD-40, hoping something was just froze up, but nada.

It seems to be moving freely in there. Opens just fine from the outside. Rod is connected to both the assembly and the inside handle.

 

[Maniak]

#1 reason for a rear door to not open is someone yanked really hard on the inside door handle while the child lock was on. Now the bar that runs from the inside door handle to the latch is bent.

If your lucky, you can just bend that bar back to straight and the door will open again..

~Mark

 

[FIND]

I've had a couple explorers that the rear doors stop functioning from the inside handles. Clean and lubricate your latches and make sure your linkage is not bent.

 

[Malchi]

#1 reason for a rear door to not open is someone yanked really hard on the inside door handle while the child lock was on. Now the bar that runs from the inside door handle to the latch is bent.

If your lucky, you can just bend that bar back to straight and the door will open again..

~Mark

Mark, that is the problem. Thank you.

I straightened the rod and it worked once or twice, then if I hold the rod so it doesn't bend it works just fine. But, the rod is so weak that it won't stay straight.

Guess I'm gonna have to get one from the junkyard. Any tips on how to disconnect it from the latch end? I can't see anything in there, nor can I figure it out by feel. How is it connected?

 

[stoneyj69]

door problems

my back door did that recently and looked at it, turns out the door lever gear was all stripped out. replaced it with another one and then it opened but it's still hard to open I have to push on the door while using the lever.

 

[Banjoes]

Can anyone post with pictures or a have a link to fix this problem? My 95 xlt has the same problem with rear driver door, and rear passenger door is starting to have the same problem, but still opens from inside thankfully.

 

[EastoutWest]

Both of my rear doors currently don't open from the inside. As Stoneyj69 said, the problem is not with the rod but with the little plastic gears that are part of the handle mechanism. I know this because my front door started doing this so I took it apart. You have to completely remove the pull-handle assembly from the door. After this, if you operate the handle, you will see the gears work on the backside. On mine, one tooth (the 2nd to last one in the travel) was stripped off, so no matter how much you pull on it, it can't complete the travel.

I tried rigging it to work by lengthening the rod that goes to the latch but that didn't work. I ended up swapping the handle from the driver-side rear door... which is why my rear doors both don't open from inside anymore. But the front doors do, which is obviously more important to me.

Now my door is starting to act like it did just before it quit working last time, so it looks like I will be going to pull a part to find replacement door handles soon... Yep, another one of ford's little design flaws... don't make high-tensile gears out of plastic... The crappy part is that who knows how long used handles will last...

 

[myf16]

#1 reason for a rear door to not open is someone yanked really hard on the inside door handle while the child lock was on. Now the bar that runs from the inside door handle to the latch is bent.

If your lucky, you can just bend that bar back to straight and the door will open again..

~Mark

I didn't check the forum on this but a couple weeks ago I discovered this same problem. Straightening the rods for both back doors fixed the problem well enough.

It seems the designers underestimated passengers' strength and overestimated their intelligence!!

Fortunately the fix is easy and quick.