Another door handle question

[adamred]

I drove my co worker with me today and when he tried to open his door the handle pulled off the control arm that comes from inside the door panel.

Bitting my tongue....said oh don't worry, I'll deal with it later, ran around the car and let him out. Well just went to take a look and it seems the control arm just jumped out of the little while receptacle on the back of the handle, 4 minutes later I popped it back in. One or two questions

1) Is the little white receptacle supposed to have a notch cut out or did it break?

2) Anything, other then being a bit more friggin' careful to prevent this, mechanism updates....can only imagine the eye rolls from my wife if this had happened to her....

Thanks

Adam

[s_wilwerding]

Originally posted by adamred

1) Is the little white receptacle supposed to have a notch cut out or did it break?

2) Anything, other then being a bit more friggin' careful to prevent this, mechanism updates....can only imagine the eye rolls from my wife if this had happened to her....

1. Yes, the little white thing is supposed to have a notch in it.

2. You can buy either new white tabs or whole new interior door handles. I updated my door handles to the metal kind - the plastic was starting to flex a little too much. It's a worthwhile upgrade - the new handles look stock, but they are much sturdier than the plastic kind.

[tchanson]

Originally posted by adamred
Anything, other then being a bit more friggin' careful to prevent this, mechanism updates....

Adam,
You can just replace the handle and the white clips, but those are just symptoms and don't deal with the underlying problem.

There was a TSB detailing retrofitting an updated handle to door linkage that was made standard in March '85. Its uses a cable instead of the solid wire inside a sheath of earlier cars that tends bind over time.

There's an excellent tech article on the procedure and the parts needed for the upgrade here, along with an alternative method.

Good luck,
Tim

[adamred]

Thanks guys, I'll definitely look into the updates, I've seen billet handles advertised, do these look a bit too "bling" on a 23 year old car?