2buickbob Posted February 10, 2009 Report Share Posted February 10, 2009 I have the exterior door handle to my '92 Regal coupe up in the door pillar, just like the Lumina, GP and Cutlass coupes of those years. After coming home from work and after almost 17 years, it gave out. No spring action. Gone. So I climbed in through the passenger door. Is this an easy fix? Where do I get a new or used handle? Expensive? Re-keying required (I hope not)? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jake91 Posted February 10, 2009 Report Share Posted February 10, 2009 you get one at the nearest junkyard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2buickbob Posted February 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2009 you get one at the nearest junkyard Yes, but easy fix? Can a low-tech person like me do it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jake91 Posted February 10, 2009 Report Share Posted February 10, 2009 i have never done it but my dad has and i dont believe i was hard at all. i think the price will probably be between 20-60 depending on where you go, and you should be able to swap the lock from your handle to the new one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arod0079 Posted February 10, 2009 Report Share Posted February 10, 2009 not that hard to replace. a few screws and pull the door panel off. Replace. Then your good to go. i did my first one in about 30 min. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carkhz316 Posted February 10, 2009 Report Share Posted February 10, 2009 They're cake man. Open the door (from inside I suppose), and you'll see 2 flimsy, black cap-nuts holding the the door handle on. Top one bolts directly to door frame, bottom one doubles as a hold for the trim piece lower on the door (covering the linkage.) Take the Phillips screw off the bottom of the plastic trim cover, and you'll see the linkage. Un-clip the lock rod and the handle rod and off she comes. Lock cylinder comes off with a Torx (25 or 30???) and you install it into the new handle. Reverse procedure to install. Let me know if you have questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carkhz316 Posted February 10, 2009 Report Share Posted February 10, 2009 Damn, you beat me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LuminaSS Posted February 10, 2009 Report Share Posted February 10, 2009 its a way to go in the door & fix it temporarily, but I'd def replace it. I used to love the for bein different but now I'm jus tired of them screwing up & being so delicate. a brand new one can be bent out of place almost jus on the weight of the door alone. now I want to shave them altogether but of coarse thatll be a task. but I think it might be worth it for a lumina to look like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2buickbob Posted February 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2009 They're cake man. Open the door (from inside I suppose), and you'll see 2 flimsy, black cap-nuts holding the the door handle on. Top one bolts directly to door frame, bottom one doubles as a hold for the trim piece lower on the door (covering the linkage.) Take the Phillips screw off the bottom of the plastic trim cover, and you'll see the linkage. Un-clip the lock rod and the handle rod and off she comes. Lock cylinder comes off with a Torx (25 or 30???) and you install it into the new handle. Reverse procedure to install. Let me know if you have questions. Thanks. I feel better now. I see the 2 black nuts. I'll do it the weekend following President's Day, since I'm going out of town. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdvs Posted February 15, 2009 Report Share Posted February 15, 2009 A bit late weighing in on this, so I hope you read this B4 you go to the j/y. As already posted, it's not a difficult swap. Finding a good one can sometimes be a bit hard as this is a common problem so good ones are usually grabbed pretty quick. The thing to be aware of, as I have found thru past experience, is altho the handles all appear the same, there are slight differences. It may just be because I have a vert, but get one from a Regal to be sure it's right. Last one I bought at my local j/y was $12.00. Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EviLette Posted February 15, 2009 Report Share Posted February 15, 2009 They are relatively easy to swap out, but despite what people are saying, I personally do NOT recommend going to the salvage yard to get a new handle. Sure, it will be cheaper... by a bit... but in the long run, it will probably break a lot sooner than putting a new one from rockauto or oreillys will. I've gone through several handles on my GP since I've had it, two salvage and two new... the new last easily 3x as long as the salvage, and you're guaranteed that nobody has yanked on it BEFORE you got it... because the yanking is what breaks these things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Addicted To Boost Posted February 15, 2009 Report Share Posted February 15, 2009 You can buy one off ebay for ~$15 NEW. Just be sure to find the correct color, ie. gloss black, flat black, whatever your car needs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GPX Posted February 17, 2009 Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 You can buy one off ebay for ~$15 NEW. Just be sure to find the correct color, ie. gloss black, flat black, whatever your car needs. Let me say, however that my experience with a new aftermarket handle last summer was very bad and it still doesn't work quite right. I had to modify both the assembly and sheetmetal on my door and after many hours of messing around with it I called it "good enough" but it's really not and I will spend more time with it when it warms up. In the meantime my driver's side handle broke about 8 weeks ago and that same icy day the stupid aftermarket handle would not operate either! A bad dub day indeed. Others on the forum confirmed that aftermarket handles are junk and I must say that having designed parts for GM (including the W) I know how much time and effort goes into the manufacture of car parts and it's not surprising that an assembly such as this falls far short of OEM. I also understand that NOS parts are virtually not available and if you DO find one, it will likely cost upwards of $175. So good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carkhz316 Posted February 17, 2009 Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 Well, you really have to shop around with the aftermarket ones. If you don't want to cough up the big bucks to find a NOS, then it's either JY , or EbAy!!!!!, in most cases. In my experiences, I've gone with Ebay with my last couple purchases of these handles, and the one on the Euro's drive side was one there for about 3 years. Probably would've lasted longer had I bothered to lube the door linkage regularily Now i do. The pair I got for the '92 have been around for about a year, though I've only driven the car a few weeks worth total as it's now parked for the winter. (Do the math on the door openings.) So, the option is really up to you, but from my experiences, any of 'em on Ebay will work so long as the door is already functioning properly. Also, yes, I did have to mod mine a bit; either tweaking the rods a bit, or in all of the cases, the outer plate/ cover not having the same curvature as the door, and then having to bend the thing across my leg. So, they're not perfect, but the ones I got were always the cheapest I could find on there too. So, do what you think is best I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Addicted To Boost Posted February 17, 2009 Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 Strange, I bought one off Ebay and put it on my GP over 2 years ago, and it still works perfectly. Fit and finish was the same as the one that was on there before and it required no modification to make it work. Cost me $14 and still works perfectly to this day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GPX Posted February 17, 2009 Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 ...or in all of the cases, the outer plate/ cover not having the same curvature as the door, and then having to bend the thing across my leg...That was one problem I had. I also had to relieve the counterweight as it was crashing into the door skin on the inside and had to trim away sheetmetal on the inside weld flange so the thing would even seat properly. Plus the top stud was too short for the sheetmetal acorn nut to get a purchase on it. Since there are many different models/years involved here, there are probably varying degrees of success in the final product. Maybe the GPs are good. Mine's a Cutlass. IDK, but I doubt there are really that many different ones out there. I'm guessing that even thought there seem to be a lot available from different sources, they are probably a generic Korean or Chinese source. Mine had no brand name. I bought it from AM Autoparts in NH--$21 shipped if I remember. I thought it was a great deal until I spent 6 hours dicking around with it. I complained to AM Autoparts but got no response. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackbombshell95 Posted February 18, 2009 Report Share Posted February 18, 2009 I bought mine off of ebay. I changed mine out last week. Only took 10 mins. You will need a torx bit to release the key cylinder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THe_DeTAiL3R Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 They are easy to change. I had 2 Grand prix coupes (an 88 and a 95) so I got good at changing them, only takes like 5min. They do break from yanking, but I've had them break for no real reason at all. If you go to the junkyard try and get an extra one as a backup, that's what I did (and then it never broke again ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old442man Posted February 23, 2009 Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 I think I'm on handle 6 or 7 in six years. I've tried the after market ones and I was never impressed. The curvature wasn't right, the lock rods were way off, they pulled hard, and they broke too easy. I started going with GM. I have a new GM one on each side now and it's probably but the longest stretch since I've had trouble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GnatGoSplat Posted February 23, 2009 Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 Well crap muh pants, my wife told me the handle on her vert broke. As I recall, Cutlass handles are Cutlass-specific. Last time I bought a GM OEM one from GMPD, they were $53.50. I checked today (some 8-years later) and now they're up to $170!!! Eeeks! I guess I'm stuck having to buy an aftermarket one. Where are you guys finding them for $15? Cheapest eBay handle I could find is $28 shipped. If they're as craptastic as you guys say they are, maybe I'm better off giving Super Alloy 1 a try. It's a pot-metal solder, supposedly as strong as the original material... which isn't very strong, but if it's at least that strong it should last as long without fit & finish issues. It's twice the cost of a new aftermarket handle though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old442man Posted February 23, 2009 Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 Last time I was so pissed I bought a shaved door handle kit for $80 but in all practicality it will never find it's way into my car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GPX Posted February 24, 2009 Report Share Posted February 24, 2009 If they're as craptastic as you guys say they are, maybe I'm better off giving Super Alloy 1 a try. It's a pot-metal solder, supposedly as strong as the original material... which isn't very strong, but if it's at least that strong it should last as long without fit & finish issues. It's twice the cost of a new aftermarket handle though. That stuff looks pretty interesting and I believe it's as strong as pot metal, but int the case of our door handles, I don't think it will work for long. I'm sure it's great for aesthetic/surface repairs, but your repair is all going to depend on how well it bonds to the two broken pieces. Pot metal is junk with a very crystalline structure and I think the odds of it actually making a bond as strong as the metal are slim. My kids are always asking me to glue long thin pieces back together and I have so much experience failing at that that I don't do it anymore. I think anything that is less than a real weld on real metal has a supreme chance of failure due to imperfect bonds and too much leverage. These handles definitely have some leverage exerted on them. More than most handles I think. Now, one thing I did consider and will think seriously about with this next one is bashing the aftermarket assembly and just taking the handle out of the new one and installing it in the old assembly. It might be less work than I went thru and might yield better results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GnatGoSplat Posted February 24, 2009 Report Share Posted February 24, 2009 Yeah, you might be right. I've read that pot-metal can't really be welded on very well either since it burns up real easily. One idea I had was to take a piece of sheetmetal, form it around the broken part, drill a hole through it on either side, and insert rivets. Maybe then solder over the whole thing for additional strength. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2buickbob Posted February 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2009 Strange, I bought one off Ebay and put it on my GP over 2 years ago, and it still works perfectly. Fit and finish was the same as the one that was on there before and it required no modification to make it work. Cost me $14 and still works perfectly to this day. Yes, I did E-bay. It's this Saturday p.m.'s chore. Wish me luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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