[sydneyman2007]

ok so took some pics of my driver's side door handle "lever" replacement.

a little back story:
Bought the car from a guy with 5 front engine porsches... he knows a great deal but ive found that he either does not care about the maintenance of each and every one of his cars or he just doesn't know anything at all about them... when i got the car, he said the driver's side door handle did not work and that he ordered "the part". he also said the passenger side was going as well...

sure enough, the passenger side lever was difficult to move and felt like it was a matter of time before something broke...
well i took off the passenger handle and sprayed it down with PB blaster and put on some new gaskets from sunset and reinstalled... its perfect now...

on to the driver's side
i found that the actual lever had been broken clean in half... he yanked on it for so long with something obviously wrong that the METAL lever broke... if he had just lubricated, this wouldn't be an issue. so let that be a lesson. lubricate or something will break! [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dry.gif[/img] hmm nevermind...

I didn't want to shell out the money for a whole new handle so I just bought the lever to replace the broken one from paragon products (10 bucks). i ended up not even replacing my rod linkage since it was in really good condition. as a matter of fact, i only replaced the gaskets and the lever and reused everything else...

note that this only covers the lever replacement on a handle that has been removed from the car already. i don't want to even be reminded i had to remove and replace the handle, much less put it to paper. err or screen... so good luck on that... theres some write ups on hear already anyways...

well here are some pics that chronicle this misadventure...

this shows the old handle and new lever-
   

this is after the rod linkage is removed (a common issue) just take off the circlip and punch out the pin.
   

This is after the top of the lock cylinder is removed. i did this to take the cylinder out and clean really well. All you do is remove the screw and the top pieces need to be pried off. this leaves a spring that should just fall out. note its orientation though! this allows a good view of the inside of the cylinder. a good opportunity to clean that out. If you don't care about cleaning out the lock cylinder then skip this step because all you have to do is removed the lock pin and the cylinder will fall right out to expose the lever.
   

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[sydneyman2007]

this shows the two metal pieces above the spring and the spring removed. again, this is not necessary for lever replacement but a good idea if you want to clean it out really well. i figure its such a pain in the arse to get to this point, that you may as well...
   


this shows the little pin that needs to be punched out so the entire lock cylinder can fall out. this <i>is </i> necessary for lever replacement.
   

this is the handle with all but the old lever and spring for the lever removed... all that changed between this and the previous picture was the whole lock cylinder was removed in one piece after the pin was punched out.
   

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[sydneyman2007]

this is the handle with absolutely everything removed and ready for the new handle! note this has a pin that needs to be punched as well. starting to see a pattern here... just punch out and the spring and lever will lift right out. NOTE: note the orientation of the spring before completely removing it since it needs to go back in a certain way! ask me how i know!
   

this is a comparison between the two levers. note the "in half-ness" of the bad one...
   

and reassembly is reverse of disassembly, sorry i hate to read that too but there's nothing especially hard here!
   

a couple of notes:

theres alot of punching going on so make sure you have some different size nails or actual punches around to hammer these puppies out. i had a pretty extensive universal screw driver bit set that had a bunch of attachments that worked great for whatever i needed.

its hard to convey the orientation of these assorted springs so im just going to leave that to you guys to note their orientation before removing!

i used a pair of vice grips and locked them on the handle to steady it when punching out pins. i locked them on the little tab on the back of the handle nearest the front of the car. (where the smaller gasket attaches)

sorry for the fuzzy pics!

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[Ryan]

Good write-up...even though the pics are fuzzy! I get the idea nontheless. Thanks.

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[Lear35A]

Good write-up. I had to replace one of these (pre 968Fourums days) and didn't document it for others [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blush.gif[/img] . What a royal PITA getting things to snap together inside the door panels. As I recall I had some electrical switch on mine to further complicate matters that I don't see in your pictures. It was for the power door locks.

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[sydneyman2007]

yeah had the switch too, its removed in the pictures. just a flat head screw and a plastic clip. but yes a royal PITA... just had to share my pain... purely selfish reasons to document! [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]

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[Anchorman]

I also have been through this. I avoided any of the "punching" because I'd lucked out by making an eBay purchase of a perfect handle and lever assembly. On mine, the "trigger" on the lever broke - partly because I got so tired of taking the door apart that I did Syndneyman2007's PO had done - used it until it broke.

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[DaveN]

I have to replace all my door handle gaskets so hopefully I don't have to that deep into door handle mayhem?

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[Jamie '92 968]

[quote name='DaveN' date='Jun 4 2010, 01:23 PM' post='94189']
I have to replace all my door handle gaskets so hopefully I don't have to that deep into door handle mayhem?



Dave,

Check out this post (#72) before doing the door handle seals.
Worked like a charm for me.

http://www.968forums.com/index.php?s=&...ost&p=70739

Jamie

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[DaveN]

Tks Jamie. I only have one in hand at the moment so hadn't atually searched for a DIY yet. Bookmarked and ready when I get the other pieces now.
Now we return you to our regular programming (thread).

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[sydneyman2007]

yep as Jamie says, don't have to remove any of the linkages for the gaskets... this is just if you broke one or two things in the handle and want to save a few bucks instead of buying a whole new assembly...

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[sydneyman2007]

so my passenger handle just broke. thank goodness this saint had this write up all ready for me! <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/smile.png" class="smilie" alt="" />

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[mbardeen]

How serendipitous is this.. One of the things I'm awaiting in my latest shipment of parts is a new door handle lever! Nice writeup, and I even with the fuzzy pictures I can make out the orientation of the springs. Good thing because I didn't make note of that when I ripped it all apart.



Thanks!

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[sydneyman2007]

[quote name='mbardeen' timestamp='1340828666' post='128710']

How serendipitous is this.. One of the things I'm awaiting in my latest shipment of parts is a new door handle lever! Nice writeup, and I even with the fuzzy pictures I can make out the orientation of the springs. Good thing because I didn't make note of that when I ripped it all apart.



Thanks!

[/quote]

Glad to be of help! Good luck with the process!

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[mbardeen]

The door handle lever arrived yesterday and is installed. Writeup was great, helped immensely. For future reference, the bent end of the spring faces toward the lock cylinder.



Now I have to save my power door lock. Cracked the case on it yesterday to find that it had evidently had some water inside at some point and the electic motor had rusted solid.

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[Scott Collins]

That is a great write up! I don't know if sydneyman2007 is still active, but good work by you!



I am just about finished with this job, but my project had a bit of a "wrinkle". Like many of my efforts, not

everything went as expected.



In the process of punching out the clinch pin that holds the actuating lever, I snapped off the closer ear (of two) that the clinch pin slides through. Too much force on a thin section of cast metal. So I got some JB weld and cut a small nail in two, and reset the piece using the nails for additional support, with the actuating lever in place to insure proper fit. Further, the clinch pin in my handle did not have a tensioning spring. Sort of a mystery.... Maybe this job had been done before by a <acronym title='previous owner'>PO</acronym>.



So I would recommend that anyone attempting this job drill out the end of the pin instead of punching it out. That should prevent the ear from snapping off. It remains to be seen if my JB Weld repair will hold. To be continued....

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[hot968]

Great info I have to change the gaskets soon. I brought the part just have to have the time. Was it hard to get the handle off of the door? I knwo I have to remove the door panel. Super helpful pictures. thanks

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[JTP]

I bought my door handle gaskets 4 months ago but put it off as I feared taking the door card off and the linkages. Thanks for the tip, I can live with a small split in the underside of the handle gasket.

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[flash]

lol - i guess i can toss my notes. i just did this, and was planning on writing a DIY. cool



i only have one thing to add, and i'll post the pics and notes probably tomorrow. it's just a tech tip on how to remove and reinstall the bent rod.

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[Scott Collins]

New gaskets can be installed without removing the door panel, but you have to be willing to cut the gasket. I cut it in the center of the short straight section of the gasket.

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