Door handle opener, Need a pointer here.... Options

[jim_hoyland]

I’m helping SB914 get his passenger door handle to work. The interior pull works fine; the exterior pull will not work unless I push in on the door first.
Took the handle out; it’s ok
There’s not a lot of adjustment for the mechanism and i’m Trying to not remove it.
Anyone else had this problem ?

[914sgofast2]

I had a similar problem with both of my doors. Even with new plastic levers from 914 Rubber, they would not work correcetly and kept breaking the plastic part, while the inner door handles worked just fine.

The first thing I suggest doing is to simply loosen and remove the screws holding the latch mechanism inside the door. Then remove the latch mechanism from inside the door and soak it in parts cleaner or paint thinner overnight to clean out 40+ years of congealed grease and grit. I was amazed with how much easier the latch mechanism worked after it was cleaned. I suggest doing this before you start changing the door striker adjustments and hinges if the door closed OK before you took the outter handle off for repairs. Messing with the door striker adjustments and hinges is a slippery slope that will consume a lot of trial and error time.

(And no, you cannot simply some spray parts cleaner into the latch mechanism while it is still mounted inside of the door. Been there; tried that first; it didn't work. The plastic lever on the outter door handle kept breaking anyway until I finally took the latch mechanism out of the door and soaked it overnight in parts cleaner.)