Well now, wasn't that fun?

sasquatch · 03-26-2011, 07:51 PM

Rebuilt the drivers door latch on my 87. Gee, it is nice that Porsche provides us with a nice little kit to replace the broken pot metal piece that often fails rather than buying a whole door handle.

But do you think they can make it a bit easier to work on??????

I'd rather do clutch jobs on a 951 using only a crescent wrench and a 99 cent phillips screw driver while drunk on Mad dog 20/20 than that blasted door handle.

And of course I had to do it twice as my guestimate of the adjustment was off, a bunch.

No, I did not pull the window and rail, I did it all through the top hole where the door handle fits. Pretty much like doing a tonsillectomy on a a chimpanzee by going through is rectum. But I'm not bitter, really, I'm not. It's all good now..... nice and calm.....

Hmmm, why are those men in white coats at my front door?

ernie9944 · ernie9944's Garage

^^You knew better than go buy yourself a 944,so let those men with the white coats in then it will be the end of your problems.

AA_Ezra · 03-26-2011, 08:59 PM

And i would rather work door handles then a clutch job :P

Aufgeladen944 · 03-27-2011, 04:19 AM

One of the many things I have to look forward to. I broke my driver's side three years ago, and I gave up and let the body shop who was painting it do it.

But now my passenger's side is broken. It's gonna be a BLAST...

Larry Bud · 03-27-2011, 04:23 AM

There is some evil gremilin in Strutgart who thinks up all of the issues posted on this board.

Cocacolakidd · Cocacolakidd's Garage

After working on the repair and replacement of the 944 door handles. I have come to the conclusion the procedure reminds me of an old Movie called"The Clock Maker's Monkey." The movie was about this Clockmaker that trained a very small Monkey to help him in his work.

ERAU944 · ERAU944's Garage

ahh yes. my '84 has had the driver's side door replaced with one from '87 or later, so i know your pain. i've replaced the door handle about 4 times... the last time (hopefully the last time i HAVE to replace it) was with 951 handles.

sooo, i got so tired of killing my hands, i broke down and took the rear window rail piece out, and used a high speed cutting wheel to rid myself of that ridiculous plate that blocks your hands from getting to the backside of the door handle.

now that i did that, i'll never need to touch it again.

Rtarh2o · 03-27-2011, 05:18 AM

I had a post on this same thing a few months ago, after spending many days trying to get the handle back on through only the small hole I finally pulled the window and window frame. I had to do both door handles so I decided to just bite the bullet and do it. Guess what? Took only about 15 minutes to get the window and channel out! Door handle went in, was able to adjust etc. This is the only way to go, you can spend hours busting your knuckles, going crazy or just simply pull the window, it really is easy, wouldn't even think about doing it again.
Rusty

sasquatch · 03-27-2011, 05:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rtarh2o

I had a post on this same thing a few months ago, after spending many days trying to get the handle back on through only the small hole I finally pulled the window and window frame. I had to do both door handles so I decided to just bite the bullet and do it. Guess what? Took only about 15 minutes to get the window and channel out! Door handle went in, was able to adjust etc. This is the only way to go, you can spend hours busting your knuckles, going crazy or just simply pull the window, it really is easy, wouldn't even think about doing it again.
Rusty

I looked for the proceedure to remove the glass on this forum and failed to find it. I then looked in the absolutely worthless Haynes manual, nothing as well. I then broke out the mack daddy 7 volume set of service manuals and it covers everything about the doors EXCEPT how to pull out the glass.

Had I found a good procedure for that, I would have done it that way. If one of you wrote one up, let me know where it is and I will print it off and stuff it in the manual because I am sure I will have to do this again.

smokin_944 · smokin_944's Garage

You guys are scarin me... My driver side door handle trigger is brutally hard to deal with. I HAVE TO DO THE HANDLE!! aaaaahhhhhhhhh....

89-944NA · 89-944NA's Garage

Come on guys, it's not that hard, changed the "plain" door handles on the old 89NA to the "script" handles, and the whole process (both sides) took no more than two hours.

But I must say, the Porsche AG needs to sit the designers down next to a test mule car, and tell them "ok, repair it", and if the designers can't get their hands in someplace, make them redesign it.

One of the joys of owning ANY Porsche is the skinned knuckles and scraped arms that go with working on them.....look at the bruises as badges of honor

ERAU944 · ERAU944's Garage

yeah that's all well and good about telling engineers to redesign something so YOU can't get to it... but what if it's on purpose???

the only reason i can think of for that plate there is to keep thieves from being able to jimmy the door unlocked. just take the track out, fix your handle, and stop whining. if y'all would keep your door handles lubricated like they ought to be, these pieces wouldn't break in the first place.

they are engineers, after all, they get paid to sit around and think of EVERYTHING, so they chose security over ease of replacement. notice i said ease not 'possibility'. you can do it, there are just a couple of extra steps.

I'm sorry if this post came across as harsh, but seriously, sometimes i catch myself whining - and realize i just gotta back up a bit and look at the big picture.

that said, the way i see it - my '84 didn't have that plate to begin with, so i have no qualms removing it. also, i feel that if someone really wants my car, they are going to get it no matter what i have inside the door to keep them from jimmying the handle unlocked. the only thing that could save me in that instance is if that dude from tosh.0 was trying to break into my car with a hammer... rofl

pmason · pmason's Garage

So those that where successful doing this through the hole, what is the trick? I'm in the process right now and I have no patience left, spend over 2 1/2 hours trying the first time and broke it, just replace the broken linkage, and another 1 1/2 taking a break.

Born2bwild1191 · 05-13-2011, 07:01 PM

I've done a few of these. If you pull the panel, and pull the little shield on the side connected to the window frame off, the little ball thing is right there and it literally takes 30 seconds. It took me 5 minutes total after I figured this out. Just did it a week ago on my 87 turbo.

Tervuren · Tervuren's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by pmason

So those that where successful doing this through the hole, what is the trick? I'm in the process right now and I have no patience left, spend over 2 1/2 hours trying the first time and broke it, just replace the broken linkage, and another 1 1/2 taking a break.

The trick for me was to keep a worklight shining in the vent in the door blasting the general area - it gave me better light to see what I was doing.

I also got my little brother to help - he has much smaller hands and could manage some of the stuff I couldn't.

Born2bwild1191 · 05-14-2011, 06:22 AM

Almost forgot, If you're going to do it through the hole, a set of long 45* needle nose help a lot.

mikepellegrini · mikepellegrini's Garage

I have a wonderful invention. Voila:

It's an ordinary long, skinny, flat-head screw driver. I bent the tip at a 90 degree angle, then sharpened it to a point.

Modified thusly, I use it like this:

I take the plastic vent out of the door and put in a small flashlight pointing up (so you can see what you're doing), then insert the door latch actuator rod part of the door handle, and then fit my tool into the small hole in the plastic part.

To be able to do this properly, you have to have the handle pointing almost at the floor. Then it's easy to push the actuator rod onto the nipple. I can usually do it in 1 or 2 minutes.

Because the handle is pointing at the floor, you have to gently force it back up into the proper position - which admittedly can be kinda a tense situation. But I've never scratched the paint or broken a handle yet [Knock on wood].

pmason · pmason's Garage

DONE!!!
I would agree with sasquatch; If I never do this again it will be too soon!

Mike, I was about creating something just like that, but was thinking what I might of have already, tried an allen wrench but did work. Your idea looks pretty good.

Thanks for the info all.