Door handle fix

[e_nough]

Did you ever wonder how come your door latches dont open from the outside until you pull the little lever in ALL THE WAY IN! You can make an adjustment to the door hanle linkage that lies inside the door between the outter door panel and the glass to fix the problem.

PLEASE let me know if you try this and it works.

Here's how:

1. Remove the interior door panel. (If you don't know how to do this you shouldnt try this repair.

2. remove the power lock assembly if equiped. the disconnect from the lock linkage is at the brass pin that connects the two white plastic pieces that are accuated by the power lock servo.

3. Remove the rear channel that the glass slides in so you can get to the back side of the exterior door handle. there is a screw at the bottom and im not sure about the top, mine was welded in at some point but was disconnected when i did this.

4. now you can get to the back side of the handle.

5. pull the door handle lever and watch which linkages move.

6. follow the brass colored linkages made from bent rods down to the latch mechanism. on the bottom rod you will see a black plastic ball joint that threads onto the brass colored rod. all you need to do is remove this plastic ball joint and unscrew it enough to take out the slack in the linkage and then snap it back on. you will need to remove the louvered air duct vent with the black foam surround by pulling it out to get enough room to work. use a screw driver to remove the plastic ball joint and needle nosed pliers to press the ball joint back together.

let me know if this solves your door handle problems.

[asidrave]

ive done that with my 944. yes its till a little hard, but at least you dont have strail your fingers to open the door

[Richard Foy]

I did my passenger door this weekend. I only worked on the electronic locking mech, as is was not working with a key, and caused the whole locking system to fail. My problem was the shaft that runs from the door handle to the lock solenoid. The union that allows length adjustment had slid up the shaft making it essentially disconnected. Also the entire locking parts needed a bit of lubing, but now all works well.

[e_nough]

i did this repair on th driver's side, and it feels pretty darn close to new (like other new cars with the same style handles) only a little bit harder.

you have to make sure too adjust it enough to take up all the slack.

[AMCPorsche924Powerhaus!]

I did this a while back when I bought my car, that little black plastic thing has some turns in it for adjustment yep. Something was really wrong with my handle though and the adjustment was not what it needed, but once I fixed my handle the adjustment helped get it perfect, it's fine adjustment.
As soon as I popped that plastic peice that goes on the ball i thought "this is gonna break, its gonna snap, easy , easy"
And it never broke even though I popped it on and off like 20 times with frustration since I was trying to solve the problem.
It turned out to be the little peg in the exterior part of the latch on the door that goes into the interior part through the door into the panel area. That peice you can take out with the torx screws from the outside of the car with the door open. The peg was too long and jamming in the internals of the interior part of the latch, or the internal part of the system was mispositioned or something.. This is the peg that actually moves up and down to unlatch the door when you press the handle button. I can't remember how I fixed it, I tried putting spacers in to shorten the peg but that didn't work and I did something else. I realized that there were no spacers in it in the first place and that wouldn't make any sense for it to all of a sudden need spacers so I found the real problem but dang it I can't remember what it was. It also wasn't the length of the peg even though I could have filed it down to make it work because things just don't all of a sudden increase in size, metal can't just lengthen for no reason, but hey its fixed so I can't remember what fixed it what else is new these days jeez

[This message has been edited by AMCPorsche924Powerhaus! (edited 02-08-2001).]

[AMCPorsche924Powerhaus!]

Yeah now I remember that little bugger, it was very hard to pop on, I think I took a slot head screwdriver with lots of surface and just really pressed on it too, because pliers would break it.

[nigel]

A little word of warning about doing this job. I have owned a couple of Audi's in the past, which have a very similar handle to the 944/924. I adjusted my handles as you describe here, and found that within a few days the handle snapped. You see, the lever on the back of the handle is made of cast white metal.....junk in other words, and it slowly bends over the years. Once it bends back far enough the door becomes near impossible to open, so you adjust the rod length as described, but now the cast lever is working beyond its designed movement and hey presto....it breaks!!!

[e_nough]

nigel,

i dont follow you, which part breaks?

the black lever arm your fingers touch or some parts inside the door? the threaded rod?

[nigel]

Sorry I should have explained my self better. The part that breaks is the piece of cast metal on the back of the handle itself. Its actually part of the door handle. You can tell when it breaks as the outside handle, that your fingers go on, goes all floppy.