So last year or maybe the year before I rebuilt the doors on my teener. This included the outer door handles. I cleaned everything, rekeyed all of the locks to the ignition. I also replaced the outer door handle cams. I don't remember which supplier I bought them from, but at the time I remember thinking that they seemed flimsy.

Fast forward to today. I was having trouble opening the doors from the outside of the vehicle. Eventually I grabbed a flashlight and looked into the area where the cam was. The new cams are still there, but I can also see that they've deformed quite a bit and now don't seem to have enough strength to push the latch mechanism inside the door.

Has anyone run into this? I seem to recall reading (AFTER I did my cams) that there are different suppliers for the cams. Anybody know who makes the 'good' ones?

You might have gummed up inner door latch mechanisms. Take them out of the doors and de-grease or soak them in gasoline. Re-grease/oil and reinstall them, you'll be amazed at how easy the handles open the doors. That's how they are supposed to work.

I cleaned and degreased the inner latch mechanisms when I rebuilt the doors (same time as the outer door handles). I had also cleaned and greased the window winding mechanism, rebuilt the door stays, put all new rubber and fuzzy stops in and for good measure put new door panels on.

I'm about 95% positive it's the cams, as they felt flimsy initially.

I've had exactly this same problem. I rebuilt both sides the same way the only exception being the drivers side latch still had a good factory cam (whitish) while the other was a replacement cam (black). Particularly on hot days the replacement cam seems to flex under load and prevents the door from opening from the outside. Since then I've picked up a broken door latch just to get the good factory cam and plan to replace the repop unit at some point.

Exactly what happened to me. It was warm yesterday and I could see them flexing. Once it cooled down in the evening the door opened right up.