outside door handle broken... need help removing

[HPR]

Alright. Before I get started I'll let you know that I did a search and came up with REALLY vague answers. I've also went through the POS Haynes manual and got a vague description as well...

Here's my dilemma. My driver side door handle won't open the door from the outside. It will work from the inside. I plan on either A) fixing the damn thing if possible B) purchase a new one and install it myself.

I've already rremoved the door panel and the plastic weather shield. I also was able to flip up that plastic piece that holds onto the rod, but can't seem to detach it from the handle itself. Is there a special technique I need to do in order for this to detach? I was afraid of breaking it off or bending the rod. If anyone has had experience in removing this rod from the handle, please let me know how it can be done.

Thanks.

[Flashmn]

The rods are pretty sturdy, mine still work on my AE92. On the Ae92 theres a claw holding the rod, slide the rod out of that and lift it. Cant think it to be much different on the 86.

[chuckocelica]

Originally Posted by HPR

Alright. Before I get started I'll let you know that I did a search and came up with REALLY vague answers. I've also went through the POS Haynes manual and got a vague description as well...

Here's my dilemma. My driver side door handle won't open the door from the outside. It will work from the inside. I plan on either A) fixing the damn thing if possible B) purchase a new one and install it myself.

I've already rremoved the door panel and the plastic weather shield. I also was able to flip up that plastic piece that holds onto the rod, but can't seem to detach it from the handle itself. Is there a special technique I need to do in order for this to detach? I was afraid of breaking it off or bending the rod. If anyone has had experience in removing this rod from the handle, please let me know how it can be done.

Thanks.

ok, i regirstered JUST for this. i am in the SAME boat as you HPR.

my thread on another forum: http://www.toyotacelicas.com/forums/...showtopic=6245
i tried another forum and no luck with the door handle (the first part is about my gas pedal which i fixed, and below that is my door handle questions with pics.

to get the plastic thing off....i am not exactly sure what yours is like (i have a celica); you say its still attached to the rod??? my plastic thing (mine was yellow) was broken (i have a new one now) and the rod was totally disconnected from it (which made the outside-door-handle connected to nothing). all i did was put my hand up in between the door like this:

http://img133.exs.cx/img133/5703/doo18he.jpg
top view:
http://img133.exs.cx/img133/8782/door28sz.jpg

then i used a flat head screw driver to push it out while my hand inside the door was positioning/holding the flat head in place.

i even took my car to the toyota dealership and had a mechanic take a look (luckily i talked them into doing it for free since i already removed everything to look at it). unfortunently, the SENIOR tech, which knew my car quite well, came up with the same conclusion me and my friend had...the damn rod was bent! atleast it looks like it. to be 100% sure we'd have to take a look at the other door or totally remove the whole lock thing.

bent?: http://img223.exs.cx/img223/9540/door36oq.jpg

i remember the tech saying there was another hole or something the rod went into, but i just can't find any thing around the outside-door-handle like he was talking about! i have been pulling my hair out on this one. take a look at this thread, which is similar to mine: (different issue with plastic thing): http://www.toyotacelicas.com/forums/...showtopic=6319

the guy hasn't responded yet to my questions . hopefully one of us can figure this out, or some how find information on it. i have also searched high and low for a solution and no luck.

[chuckocelica]

ok, when i did a search on this forum, i saw yours first so i figured yours was the only one here since you said you search...but there seems to be a lot now that im going through each page on the search results :|

i guess i'll look through these then see if i can pull any relevant information out of em.

oh and by the way, if you can get it fixed, do you think you can take a pic of it that would really mean a lot, thanks!

[HPR]

The yellow part (claw) is still good and that's what I'm afraid of breaking. The rod is straight from where it hits the door latch assembly and then has a 90 degree bend at the very top to where it connects to the handle. This bend at the top is where the yellow plastic piece is connected. Actually its wrapped around the rod after the bend and it's "claw" pivots and attaches to the rod before the bend. Is this what yours looks like or does on the celica?

Anyways. After I disconnected the "claw" from the rod and pivoted the yellow plastic piece, to the up position, I SHOULD be able to just pull it out from the handle. Or so does the Haynes manual says. Nope, doesn't work for me. I tried many many times to no avail.

Judging from how everything was working. I tested to see the difference between how the inside door handle opens the door and how the outside door handle compares. The amount of distance the inside door handle moves the latch is far greater than the outside. I test the outside and it still is capable of moving the rod down to push the latch, but just not far enough. It seems the handle is still connected to the rod, but at a certain point, lifting the handle any higher and the rod stops there (or at least doesn't go farther down). I tried sticking a screwdriver in between the striker for the latch and the rod as a spacer to see if it will go down farther when I pull up on the handle. The rod still stops from descending to hit the striker latch after it reaches a certain point.

I've come to the conclusion that everything in my handle works except ONE thing. The spring that uses the leverage from the handle to push the rod down is either busted or not seated properly. But I can't seem to see if I'm correct I can get it out.... aaargh

[chuckocelica]

sorry i haven't replied sooner, i finally got back around to looking at it. i finally got it FIXED and the door panel back on!!! yay!

what you explained sounds just like mine... it seems really cramped in there to do anything, but the plastic things are actually really easy to work with. to get them off it turned out to be simple: ok, all the clips came off the same way for me. all i did was push off the "claw" part of the plastic things, heres an example of one of the clips i had to take off, the arrows show exactly where i pushed:
http://img140.exs.cx/img140/918/clip28lx.jpg
after that, the rods just pulled right out of the holes.

heres the whole lock thing i had to take out.
http://img223.exs.cx/img223/6510/doorlock8ga.jpg
i replaced the yellow claw and bent the gold rod back into place.

and another thing....i ALMOST went through the whole process of taking the OTHER door panel off to get an idea of how it works. it turns out, i was able to just peak through from where the window comes out. gotta kinda angle the flash light in there to look around, THATS how i got everything figured out, try that.

[HPR]

good work. I too also got mine fixed this last weekend. I finally was able to get the rod out with a little persuasion after inspecting the way my door handle was acting up, I noticed the spring connected to the handle was sticking... anyways, to make a long story short, I just added some WD-40, put the handle back in place and now it works just like new

[chuckocelica]

lol, before i knew my rod was bent, i tried the ol' wd-40 also.