Door won’t open

[Ehtuttle00]

I bought a stock 2000 ford explorer xls 2wd , and when I bought it 2 exterior door handles were broke (front passenger and driver rear). Both doors open from the inside. I’ve just replaced the door handles on all the doors so they match, but the 2 that had broken ones still do not open from the outside. The lock is unlocked, and the handles are for sure pulling the rod and mechanism when I pull the handle. Any idea on what could be causing them to still not work?

 

[J_C]

I found this with a forum search

There are other search hits as well.

Rear door exterior handle connector broke

I am officially stupid. My rear door was opening fine from the inside but not from the outside. I decided to try fixing it by enabling the child proof lock. Yeah. That's the trick. Now the door didn't open from either outside or inside. I managed to remove the door panel with the door closed...

www.explorerforum.com

Search results for query: exterior handle door open

www.explorerforum.com

 

[Ehtuttle00]

I found this with a forum search

There are other search hits as well.

Rear door exterior handle connector broke

I am officially stupid. My rear door was opening fine from the inside but not from the outside. I decided to try fixing it by enabling the child proof lock. Yeah. That's the trick. Now the door didn't open from either outside or inside. I managed to remove the door panel with the door closed...

www.explorerforum.com

Search results for query: exterior handle door open

www.explorerforum.com

Yeah unfortunately I’m not finding anything for my situation. The handle connector is in tact, so is the threaded push rod. I see and hear the mechanism moving when I pull the exterior handle that I replaced. Door opens from the inside still. Weird thing happens on the door tho, when you pull the inside handle to open the door it also pulls the outside one, but still opens with that inside handle.

 

[J_C]

All I can add is to compare the doors that work with those that don't. Something has to be different.

I haven't had any other problems with the doors opening on mine, besides a spring in a couple latches, which I've mentioned in this topic but I doubt this applies to your situation - but I would still look in your latches to see if this spring is broken:

Driver door will not lock or unlock

^ Yes I have. I even posted a picture (somewhere, lol) to make it easier for others to see how it goes in, in the big topic about this. Since the forum has changed formats, I don't know if I'll be able to find that topic post or not, so I'll just post the pics again. It's bound to be much...

www.explorerforum.com

People have stated that if that spring breaks, it won't open with either exterior or interior handle.

Something I'd do anyway just for the heck of it, is liberally spray WD40 into the latch mechanism to soften up old grease, let that sit a minute, work the latch open and shut a few times, then add some spray grease to it and work that in. I mean do that every few years anyway to keep it working smooth. There's not likely to be much original grease on these vehicles that isn't hardened by now.