36 door handle problem

[terry]

outside door handle no longer opens door on driver side. My problem is that i have the unit apart and don't know how the pcs fit back together, nor was i able to figure out the problem. The door opens fine from the inside. There is a spring in the unit that is still in the door and it looks fine. Is there supposed to be a 2nd spring that fell to bottom of door?

 

[FortyNiner]

When you say the handle doesn't open the door from the outside, does the handle not turn?

 

[Don Rogers]

You have shown only part of the latching mechanism. Here is an image of the complete latch for the drivers side.

 

[terry]

Thanks Don, that helps a lot. Niner, the square, long part of the handle does turn. It doesn't look like it is worn out nor do the other parts i showed. Perhaps maybe one of those parts came loose and if i can get the whole mechanism back together, it'll work again.

 

[FortyNiner]

A feature on later years was a driver's door that locked from the inside (pull up on the handle to lock - push down to release). Don't know if this was present in 36.

 

[terry]

Yes, I have that feature on my 36. Didn't think to see if that was still working or was part of the problem. My mistake was not taking the entire inside panel off the door where i could have looked more carefully at the mechanism. Instead i just loosened that part of the panel by the door latch to have a look...that's when things started dropping down towards bottom of door. Now I'm going to take entire panel off...pain in the butt!

 

[Randy in ca]

Terry, here's a couple more pictures to show how things look when assembled. Wanted to keep the picture large, so had to post as two so things don't quite line up!! It looks like all the parts are there in you picture. Surprising that it would come apart as there are 2 fairly thick tabs that are bent over to hold everything in place - only see one in your picture, maybe things were taken apart in the past and the tabs were straightened out and weakened. I can take a couple more pictures that I think will pretty much show how the 3 parts get assembled if you're going to attempt repair.


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[terry]

Randy, Thanks! Today I took the whole assembly apart and found the problem. It is the end tab in the opening assembly...it broke off. At first I couldn't figure the pbm out and thought there was only supposed to be one tab. It took me awhile to get the pieces behind it into their proper places and when i did so that assembly would not stay put. I figured my chances of finding another part just like it were not good, so I tightened in a screw where the tab used to go in and it tightened the assembly down. Works okay in my hands. Tomorrow I'll see when I get everything back in the door. Thanks again.