Drivers Exterior Door Handle Replacement

[cherrybomb]

Hey all,

I've gotten in the middle of the process of replacing my drivers side exterior door handle. It had been plagued by the broken springs, and was therefore "limp" or "loose".

I've got the old one out (had to destroy it to get it loose, probably because of my own ignorance), and now I'm trying to get the new one in.

The problem I'm having, is with the linkage between the exterior door handle, and the latch mechanism. It's a shaft which goes straight down from the handle to the latch mechanism. On the door handle side, it has a "hook". Unfortunately, this "hook" is too large to go into the part of the door handle it's designed for, that is, unless I rotate the whole thing. But I can't seem to figure out how to do that! It seems permanently fixed to the latch mechanism, so I can't figure out how to get the two back together. Here's a picture which hopefully helps describe the issue.

Any ideas? The only thing I've seen in my research is to remove the window glass guide, perhaps that will show me how I can remove the linkage so I can rotate it into the latch!

Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[Turdle]

The other end of the rod has a yellow plastic retainer, with a snap lever locking it in place. yes it needs to come loose. Don't rotate the rod though( as in trying to unscrew) as that is the adjustment.

If I remember right, the plastic piece unsnaps from thr rod, the the plastic rotates to unlock the rod. You'll figure it out

 

[cherrybomb]

Thanks for the info! At least knowing the way it is "supposed" to work, certainly helps.

Once I got that window tract out of the way, it was WAY easier to see how the whole thing worked!

I did a little writeup, you can read at the below link, if anyone is interested.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1496424

Thanks again!