drivers door doesn't open
 

My 928S has been sitting in my garage since I bought her, anyways i've noticed that you had to give a extra ummph`to open the drivers side, so I figured it was the latch as in this thread? http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-928-technical-forum/484491-driver-door-handle-no-longer-opens-door.html anyways i've had more time to work on her, and today i noticed that the drivers side door will not open at all, neither interior or exterior. when you pull either handle it will just click. I'm pretty sure it's that bracket, but i'm not sure how to get the door open to replace it.

Oh boy, are you in for some fun. Pull in the inner panel off, take the theft deterrent shield (or whatever it's called)out, and pull the inner plate (the backside of the door handle) out. Of course, it is way harder than it sounds. You need really small wrenches, small hands, and tons of patience. Replacing that things sucks the big one.
That was the first thing I had to replace when I got my 928. When I posted here about it, the common response seemed to be, "it's all part of being in the club; suck it up and do it like the rest of us have," but in a much nicer way of course. :)
Just FYI, I left the shield out upon reinstall because it would have gotten in the way. I think Dano left his out too. Good luck.

So you can't open the door at all?
Do you have central locking, or are the doors manual only? Can you turn the round black button on the inside of the door, this overrides the handle mechanism and should let you at least open the door!

Yup, I think it was easier to pull my engine out of my car than deal with the door mechanisms. Yup, left that dumb plate out too.

Just refreshed everything on both doors on my 'project' - a good days work, windows run up and down nicely, doors lock and unlock, mirrors work fine, pin switches actually turn the interior light on and off - now, what did I miss :-)

ohh great. I ended up going through the passenger side and with the door handle pulled I forced it open. :rolleyes: probably not a good thing, but i'm going to have be going in there anyways.

Do you have any kids near by? Their little hands will come in handy! I did this job a few years ago, and I used a kid from the neighborhood [age 5] to put his tiny hand inside the slot in the inner door and start the tiny nut onto the bolt. I gave him $5, and then used a long pair of needle-nose to snug the bolts down.


That little guy strutted around the neighborhood: "I fixed his Porsche and I've got $5!" He told this to his "girlfriend", who didn't seem too impressed. Typical-!

N!

Yes, but did you work on the door handle and the hardware behind it? This is the $$ ticket. Normy is correct, you need either a 5 years old help with their small hands or find some Extraterrestrial with itty bitty hands.

Aside from that part breaking, the thing attatched to the rear quarter archway can move and cause the door to stick.

If your car is indeed my old one from 20 years ago, the left quarter panel was replaced. That would make it possible for that thing to be a problem.

When you get the door open see if you can tell whether that quarter panel was replaced.

if you go to replace the inner door latch put a piece of blue tape over the outside door hndle so it stays in position befor you remove the 2 10mm nuts this makes reassembly much easier

I really have no idea what to look for, but i've noticed that the drivers side is more difficult to open then the passenger side, even before the latch thing broke.

Since I removed my Door Locks and Handles in preparation for painting over the weekend. I thought I would share my finding on how to do this without hiring an ET with itty bitty fingers to do the job.

1) Remove the side glass by the 4 bolts, remove glass and this totally opens up mega room to work. Actually normal sized hands and fingers can get in and work on those allen bolts without any issue.

Anyways, I remember this thread from way back and wanted to share my findings with you all

Dano,

Perhaps you can help me. I have the problem where the driver door will not open from the inside or outside. Are you referring to the bolts on the catcher? Do you just remove those? If so, that is brilliant...

Just so I am clear, is it possible that you have already taken pictures of this?

Sorry, I see the original topic was door that couldn't open. I was referring to removing the door handle assembly.

oh ok - you got my hopes up :( What I have found is many dead links, so I am not sure what do here...and it does not help that everyone says it is as fun as fingernails on a chalk board.

I appreciate the effort though. Anyone else?

Leon to open your door.
From the inside get a phillips screwsdriver remove the door opening surround,
then pull off the door panel center piece.
Then get a light and if you have one cut the door vapor barrier at the rear so you look inside the door, you should be able to figure out why the door handle wont work it might have snapped at the cable .
anyway with a little finesse you should be able to open the door do this with the window in the up position

Mr. Merlin,

I have already removed the panel and the window prior to this posting - just do not see any leads to what could have gone wrong. I guess there is no one item that could be the culprit, huh?

Leon if you can take some pictures

go back to the diagram of the door parts you saw and posted here, and as mrmerlin is saying also, with screwdriver/light figure how that door opens with ( ok finese) , me the screwdriver bubba (big one) held ..... wait ill go(someone #'s please) to diagram and tell you part numbers of catches that the screwdriver will work on.

it has too work(pop open) your just not getting the screwdriver positioned right or on right parts,right?

and if it is on the catch plate side there (might have to change tool/sizes) but that has a arm off it that you should be able to finese from the inside too,?.

maybe try a key in the lock different position as the door may be in a different sequence and you have to do a bunch of trial and errrr to get it all correct for it to open.

you may have flipped the mechanism manually at the door/striker that the key wont lift the arm to open it, ?

ALWAYS REMEBER THINK LIKE A PCAR 928! if it dont hurt your working on the wrong machine,lol

isnt it 49 and 7 that the door handle from the outside moves on, and the part to the right (17) of 49 will release open or catch close the door arm/to frame mechanism (19).