Door handles from HELL!?

[gmrulz4u]

This whole story started one day back last August or September. Simply put, after 5 years of ownership, my drivers-side door handle on my 89 Supreme finally broke.

 

No big deal as it was just a matter of time since I had been fairly lucky with my door handles.

 

Anyways, it was a big hassle getting the new ones to work perfectly. I decided to replace both the passenger side and drivers side so they would look better together and I figured the passenger handle would soon break anyways.

 

But since that day they were both replaced, I've had so many problems. Sometimes the outside handle won't work, sometimes the inside handle won't work, sometimes they both won't work. The passenger one was fine for the longest time up until last month when opening it from the outside has now become difficult and only decides to work when it wants to.

 

I've had it looked at by a couple of body guys and car guys in general and they think that the metal bars that run through the door are bent out of shape and are possibly no longer on the those little plastic things that the bars clip into to keep them straight. Is this possible?

 

The drivers side adjustment nut is ALL the way at the top and it doesn't seem to make any difference anymore.

 

The hard part was trying to figure out whether the problem was the handle or the lock. Because when you can't open the door with the handles, it has the exact same feel as when the door is locked. So at this point, I still can't say with 100% sureness that it IS indeed the handle not "catching" versus the door lock mechanism not unlocking.

 

Does anyone here have any recommendations or advice? I am seriously getting annoyed here and ready to shoot something!!! I can't take the HOPING my door will open feeling anymore!!

 

THANKS!

[Pontiac6KSTEAWD]

Sounds like you have the door release arm over adjusted. its trying to, or close to it, open the door. This will make your door lock thing act all screwy making it hard to get in and out. I suggest backing off the screw for the adjuster and see what you get...

[89GP_SE]

Yeah my car did that once too, and i just took the lock slider off in the interior, if you push slightly down on the rod for the lock inside and pull the door handle, it will open. Is just a temporary solution to get out your drivers side for now. Lots of times its just the lock rod that causes it, so you should just mess around with it for a little while and see if you can do anything about it. I just got my car back from a local body shop and they took 4 freakin days to fix it. As soon as i got it home, it did it again. Go figure.

[95oldsVan]

If the drivers side nut on the linkage rod is all the way up,you may need to turn it down a bit more.My stock door handles,the linkage nut was never all the way up on top.They were almost halfway down where it was from stock.

I dont know if this helps but sounds like it may be too high on that side to open the door correctly.

what handles did you buy and was it GM or from A1auto?

[EviLette]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA I've had my 92 GP almost 2 years and replaced the drivers handle twice... and its still not right... put suspension on... my passenger side started being a bitch.

 

"Door handles from hell.." I agree. BUT IT LOOKS COOL!

[ZoomZoomFan]

At the junkyard I went to yesterday (and will be going back to Monday), every single 1st gen 2-door W had broken door handles. I think a few of them had simply been removed, because one 89 CS had it's door handle assembly lying on the ground next to the car.

 

Berettas have a reputation for door handle breakage too. Mainly the older ones though, since they made the door handles out of a stronger material sometime in the 90s.

[fastbird232]

There's an early Regal in my parking lot with both handles broken! I don't know how the hell the guy gets into this thing...