rear doors acting weird

[jared ajlouny]

alright, when i open my rear doors i pull the handle and the door just sits there, u have to pull and push at the same time. it doesnt push itself open a little like the front ones. if you dont know what im saying just let me know and ill try to word it different. thanks for the help

 

[Scormunch]

Yep, I know what you're saying. Every single 2nd gen I've ever been in has had this same problem. The cause: One of the shafts in the door is flexible and twists when you pull the handle, so it doesn't have the full opening effect of the front doors. Its just a poor design and there IS something you can do to fix it. I'll take some pics of what I did recently and post them tonight.

 

[jared ajlouny]

alright thanks!

 

[Lee S.]

I have the same problem with the rear door. Lookin forward to seeing your fix.

Lee

 

[Scormunch]

I must be braindead... I've spent the last 2 weeks fatmatting the car so now theres no real way to get back into the door unless I wanna cut a piece out and ruin it. I'm pretty good about taking pics when I do something, so I'm sure I have pics laying around on my computer somewhere. I did this about a year and a half ago so its not exactly fresh in my head. Sorry for the wait.

 

[jared ajlouny]

no problem, did u buy something to fix it or did u do it with stuff you already had???? maybe someone else has a pic???

 

[Lee S.]

Any update on this thread? I have the same problem as Jared.....door sticks and you have to pull the inside door handle and push on the door at the same time to open the door from the inside. My young daughter and her friends who are usually in the back seat are driving me nuts with this. If anyone knows how to fix this I'd appreciate if you could post. Thanks,

Lee

 

[jared ajlouny]

im still waiting...

 

[odxtoxic]

i noticed the same thing in my truck...but the previous owner did have a kid he/she put in the back seat, and this kid must have pulled on the handles alot and bent the bars, you almost need to rip the handle off in my sitituation to even get the door open, when i have passangers i need to tell them, "pull as if you are going to rip the handle off"...so it would be very cool to find out what the solution to this problem is

 

[Lee S.]

I gotta feeling that it's probably more of a poor design than it is a kids fault. Probably more like Scormunch said earlier in this thread. The reason I say this is one of my back door works fine and the other doesn't. The door that's bad probably got the most use over time and the linkage wore out more than the good door.

Scormunch........are you out there? We don't need Pics if you don't have them........a brief explanation of how you fixed your door will help a lot. I'd like to know as much as possible what I'm in for before I take apart the door.

Lee

 

[jared ajlouny]

has anyone PMed him, if not i will

 

[Lee S.]

has anyone PMed him, if not i will

Jared:

I was thinking the same thing. Since you're the post starter I'll let you have the honors. Let us know if you hook up with him.

Lee

 

[jared ajlouny]

i pmed him and he should reply in this forum, hopefully he will have pics or can explain it, this is very useful info

 

[Lee S.]

So I guess there's nothing more from Scormunch on this? Anyone else have a fix for this problem?

Lee

 

[jared ajlouny]

he never PMed me back

 

[bluevolume]

It looks like we aren't going to get the response we are looking for, so maybe we can figure this out ourselves.

I took a look inside the door frame when I replaced the inside handle and there isn't much to it. There is a metal rod that connects the handle to the latch -- that has to be where the problem lies. There are a couple bends in the rod so maybe that is what's giving? I didn't look at the point where the rod connects to the latch, so maybe there is another bend there that is flexing.

So if the rod itself is the problem, how do we fix it? My first guess would be that you could either bend the rod more, so it doesn't flex as far, or maybe shorten it a bit to compensate for the stretching. The best solution would be to replace the entire rod with something stronger -- shouldn't be that hard to bend some hard steel rod into the right shape.

Whoever has the ambition to pull their door panels off could get us some pics -- I'd do it but I just got done replacing all the little push-fasteners on mine.

Lets discuss!

Blue

 

[jared ajlouny]

ill do it, but i dont know how to take off the panel, just explain to me hjow to do it and ill be the guinny pig!

 

[bluevolume]

Take out the two screws under the handle, then remove the little plastic piece around the pull-handle. After that, you just need to pull the whole panel off -- it is attached with these little plastic fasteners that just push on, pull off. If you break any of them, you can buy extras at Pep Boys, Napa, or the dealership.

You can usually find some place around the panel where you can squeeze your fingers in behind, but if not you can use a flat screwdriver. DON'T pull on the handle on the door panel -- it's only held on by little plastic clips and it will break right off. Once you get the panel partly off, just keep pulling and work the fasteners off.

Good luck!
Blue

 

[jared ajlouny]

i took it all apart and i broke the handle when i was trying to see how it works, does anyone know how much a new one costs?

 

[bluevolume]

they are like $16 at the dealer -- Ford's way of saying 'sorry' that the handles are so flimsy