exterior door handle repair

[tkamrin]

I have a '98T with what appears to be a malfunctioning driver side door handle. The door opens from the inside fine but not from the outside door handle. Is there a rod going from the latch to the outside door handle? If so, can it pop out of it's retaining clip? Now for the big question. How do you get to the door handle to pop the rod end back in. When you close the door you can hear a rattle that sounds like a rod hitting against the inside of the door.
Thanks for any help!
Teek
In case my preferences are wrong my email address is [email protected]

 

[nsxtasy]

EDIT: Deleted information that is not applicable. Sorry!

 

[Larry Bastanza]

The parts in the pic above are for the INSIDE handle repair, not the outside handle. You will need to remove the inner door panel to see what is going on with the handle.

HTH,
LarryB

 

[D'Ecosse]

Here you go - the latch rod has probably slipped off the latch actuator mechanism

 

[rbirling]

Here you go - the latch rod has probably slipped off the latch actuator mechanism

That piece has a special clip on it that isn't shown in the shop manual. How it could have slipped off, I couldn't guess. The problem is getting it back together. There are three parts you can order from the parts diagram in that spot. I think only one or two are the correct ones. I think it's supposed to be a plastic clip that goes through the hole, around the wire part, and a washer and or clip that fits on the back. Sorry if this is vague, but I couldn't get mine back together, and couldn't find anyone that knew. You'll see what I mean if you start trying to get to this. If you have the right mirror, and really small hands with two elbows on the same arm, this is probably easy. :frown:

 

[tkamrin]

Thanks for the info..
I guess the name of the game is to remove to door panel and try to see exactly what's going on. Like you say the clips are probably in the bottom of the door somewhere. You would think an Acura with 20k miles on it would hold up a little better. I tried the Acura dealer but that was a total waste of time. It took the counterman an hour to attempt to locate the door handle on his computer.
Did you guys end up repairing this yourself or did you take it to a shop?
Thanks
Teek

 

[tkamrin]

Well, sort of fixed the problem. The actuator rod assembly from the handle to the latch actually is 3 pieces.
1. the rod coming down from the handle with threads on the bottom
2. the rod coming up from the latch with threads on it.
3. a long nut about 1 1/2 in long threaded on both ends

the rod unscrewd itself out of the nut. You can get your hand into the area but the difficult part is lining up the rod with the nut. I screwed the bottom end in as far as I could, put Loctite on the upper rod threads, and screwed the nut up into the upper rod. You have to be careful because if you screw it to far up the upper rod it will un-screw off the lower rod and pop out. Hopefully, this will help the next guy with the problem.
Also, when you put the door panels back on, before you test the security system, make sure all the doors AND THE TRUNK is closed. I screwed up by testing the trunk release before testing the security system and not re-closing the trunk. To try and find out why the system didn't work,I took the whole door panel off for nothing. The story of my life!