Removing drivers exterior door handle

[astrozam]

I'll throw this up into the How to section once we get our server issue straightened out

Let me first say that I heard this was a real PITA job,and since I could get in the passenger side it wasn't a must do,but with the winter coming on I felt it was best to get er done 2yrs is long enough,LOL

Big thanks to southern who put up a how to for this with pics awhile back,it certainly helped me out.I've added a few of my own as well which may turn out to be helpful to someone else.

I recommend you wait for a nice chilly dreary fall day with a light semi frozen rain falling kinda like this


Now the 1st thing to do is to remove your drivers door arm rest,there are 2 torx screws holding it down use a T20 to remove


Once there out give a slight pull on the arm rest,the front clip should pop out
you may need a flathead to pushdown on the top rear clip


After you get the top rear clip out you need to pry up on the armrest and pop the bottom clip out


Next you want to take a flathead and gently pry the trim off that holds the door locks and window switches


Once its pried off the panel it will look like this


O.K now it would be a good idea to remove the 30A fuse that provides juice to the doors and windows you'll see why in a minute


Once the fuse is out,you can use that very same flathead screwdriver youve been using to carefully pry the connector off the back of the switches


Once you have both connectors off its time to remove the door panel.There is only one way to do this PULL start from the bottom and work your way up the sides,you will probably NOT get the panel fastners out they will rip off the inside of your panel this cannot be avoided

Once the panel is off toss it in the back of your van here is what the door will now look like

Remove any panel fasteners that are going to be in your way as you will be cutting off the weather panel to give you access


Cut the weather panel and


peel back


Heres a closeup of your interior door handle and lock it means nothing to this venture but I thought I'd be generous and throw it up,lol


If its still raining throw a garbage bag up


Now comes the fun part look up into the innards of your door here is a pic of what you are looking for the nuts that hold your door handle on


Now the bottom nut is simple to get to just remove the little black plug from the edge of your door and use a #10 on a small extension if your lucky your lower nut will break off too LOL


O.k now you need to get a small wrench and start workin away at the top nut,keep pulling the door handle away from the door this keeps the top nut in a position where you can loosen it


Once the top nut is off go around to the exterior of the door this is what you will now see


Just pop the top rod out from the point where it attaches to the handle


I don't yet have a replacement handle so I did the only thing a true canuck would do,put duct tape on it.

I will throw up a couple more pics of the reinstall when I get my handle.

[CDGsafari98]

Oh yeah this is good, I will have to do this soon as the bottom of my handle broke off!

Good thinkin astrozam Taking the door handle off without the replacement.

[coolen]

i bought a handle for my driver's door the other day, and paid $50 from UAP. Freakin' thing must me made of gold or something. the change itself doesn't seem to hard to do. we'll see...........

[MD/Astro\CL]

I'm glad I can say that I've replaced the passenger, driver, and sliding door handle along with both power window motors and the sliding door lock actuator *whew* what a PITA those jobs were. Make sure you have some quick dry JB weld and a box of the little christmas tree fasteners on hand. The jb weld is to reattach the black plastic things that hold the x-mas tree fasteners that rip off when you take off the door trim and you need new x-mas tree fasteners to get your door trim to hold tightly to the door frame. Another word of advice; never take your van to a body shop to fix this kind of stuff they will charge you a few hundred bucks and rip your door to pieces, learned my lesson on that one ](*,)

[crash]

i bought a handle for my driver's door the other day, and paid $50 from UAP. Freakin' thing must me made of gold or something. the change itself doesn't seem to hard to do. we'll see...........

holy crap.. I think we sell them for around $15 .. that's canadian even... they are the same part on lumina apv vans just so ya know... if you happen to be wrecker hunting and can't find an astro.safarl

[coolen]

well i can tell ya. your post couldn't have came at a better time. my wife broke my new handle

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

i have to go through this again. another 50 gone. so how much would shipping be to nova scotia............

[CaptSquid]

I visited the stealership today just to look at the different handles. They only had the one with the plastic rod retainer clip. But I got both part numbers:

Outside Door Handle with Steel Rod Retaining Clip: 12545595
Outside Door Handle with Plastic Rod Retaining Clip: 15719665

Of course, the plastic one is cheaper ($54.27) than the steel one ($77.40), but the one on the Help! Shelf in the local parts store is $24.99 and it comes with a steel clip, but without the nuts.