Door not opening on outside

Owl2059 · 12-26-2021, 02:49 PM

On a pleasant 34 degree and snowing day today, I decided to take my car out to give it a wash. When I was done, I tried opening the driver door, heard a barely audible unusual click, and now the door handle moves completely freely. I can still open it from the inside of the car though. I have the electric locks if that makes any difference. How much disassembly am I going to have to do, and what is y'alls best guesses on what broke?*

944 Ecology · 12-26-2021, 03:44 PM

Broken outer door handle.

Owl2059 · 12-26-2021, 05:12 PM

how bad is it to get the handle off?

944 Ecology · 12-27-2021, 03:45 AM

Door Handle - Removal, Installation, and Adjustment

nize · nize's Garage

+1 on broken door handle, most likely the little plastic ball joint broke and disconnected which is a common point of failure. anyone up for making a 3-D printed metal part for this?

Owl2059 · 12-28-2021, 09:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nize

+1 on broken door handle, most likely the little plastic ball joint broke and disconnected which is a common point of failure. anyone up for making a 3-printed metal part for this?

That'd be amazing. I wonder how much different the job is with the electronic locks, I've heard that that changes the procedure

Fast Freddy 944 · Fast Freddy 944's Garage

I had a buddy help put a new door on my 951 and it was a night mare. He knew what he was doing and yes I saw that plastic "ball joint" it was odd, and could wear out. I carefully open and close my door with the knowledge that its a pain to fix..

Owl2059 · 01-02-2022, 12:00 PM

The glory of old cars. I tried to follow those instructions linked above, but the handle just won't come out more than a few millimeters. This is really annoying, and I think it's some electric lock specific thing. How do I get it out of this version?

Cappt · Cappt's Garage

If I remember right you need to slide the handle back (or forward?) some and then you can wiggle one side out and pull it far enough to unhook the rod.

Owl2059 · 01-03-2022, 02:32 PM

Oh, I didn't think of that. I'll try again

Owl2059 · 01-10-2022, 05:01 PM

Huh, you're right. I got the handle off, and the trigger isn't broken thankfully. I really just noticed one thing wrong, and that was this one part that came disconnected from the handle as soon as I pulled it off. I tried wiggling it around, and it felt like it wasn't doing anything, but it also didn't feel like it was going to fall into the door. It's gotta do something important, since when I pull the trigger, I noticed nothing is connected to it and I'm assuming that this disconnected part is what's supposed to be on the trigger. I also took the door panel off to try to get a better view at the mechanics, but all I saw was this, a few covers and stuff. I didn't have enough time to mess with it today, but does it just unscrew and come off to reveal all of the linkages? I'm not sure how all of this stuff is laid out.

kdjones2000 · kdjones2000's Garage

What year is your car? I assume it's a 951 so there is likely an anti-theft plate that blocks off a lot of access to that area.

Hard to tell from your picture, but it looks like the activation lever on the inside part of your handle is broken.

Start taking the door lock actuator out, along with the latch and things will become obvious. It can be very hard to put things back together, however, so be prepared for that.

nize · nize's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by kdjones2000

Hard to tell from your picture, but it looks like the activation lever on the inside part of your handle is broken.

i second this as it's another common point of failure. this component is made of some type of die-cast metal, gets brittle with age, and easily snaps, especially if it's stressed over time due to things not being lined up correctly (dent, accident, improper install, etc.)

i would not even bother taking the rest of the door apart and just replace the door handle with a new one. compare your door handle with photos of good ones to determine if the lever is broken.

nize · nize's Garage

on second look, it seems the part you have circled is the plastic joint that is another common point of failure. someone really needs to make a higher quality 3d-printed part to replace this.

Owl2059 · 01-13-2022, 05:38 AM

Okay, that makes a lot of sense. We need to get rennbay or someone on this stuff lol. Is it this part that broke from what y'all can see? https://944online.com/inner-door-handle-linkage.html

nize · nize's Garage

it's hard to tell from your photos so you're going to have to figure which part it is. my take is it looks like part #9 in the PET catalog.
477 837 505 A Connecting piece /L
477 837 506 A Connecting piece /R

available right her on pelican (make sure you get the correct left or right side):
https://www.pelicanparts.com/More_Info/477837506AOEM.htm

again, you need to confirm which part appears broken since we can't tell from your photo.

Cappt · Cappt's Garage

I have the handles out of my 87NA, I can take a look at it on Saturday and try and match up what your seeing in the red circle. It might be the end of #40 connecting rod and a small pin should go through it connecting it to the handle trigger.

Cappt · Cappt's Garage

Owl2059 · 01-13-2022, 05:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cappt

I have the handles out of my 87NA, I can take a look at it on Saturday and try and match up what your seeing in the red circle. It might be the end of #40 connecting rod and a small pin should go through it connecting it to the handle trigger.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I think that no. 9 is part of the locks, which you can see is attached to the circular armature with the spring just to the left of the broken part. I think that I'm going to buy whatever parts are broken for both sides, just because I'm sure this is going to happen to the passenger side at some point. It's been a lot of fun wincing every time I open the passenger door lol
As a last thing, does that cover for the door stuff just come off after taking out those couple socket head bolts? I'm assuming that's all I need to remove to get to the components. Thanks for all your guys' help

Owl2059 · 01-14-2022, 04:55 PM

Bad news, the handle is broken. I took another look today and noticed that nothing was broken except for this pretty noticeable fracture in the handle. I looked at that armature that I thought broke originally, and the handle part was still dangling off of it. That really sucks. That more than sextupled the cost it would have been if it was just that armature. [Insert German engineering joke here]. At least I can get one at all, even if it is outrageously expensive. Dang.