Door won't open
 

Got a little problem. Fortunately, it's my passenger door.

It won't open.

I'm not sure how to go about getting it open...it's unlocked. The key turns from the outside, and you can see it unlock the door. But the handle outside hasn't worked, the inside one has, however. Until now. It feels like the handle works inside...pulls whatever it is supposed to.

When I bought it, I knew the outside handle didn't work. I had to open it from the inside. No problem. But now I have to have my passenger crawl in through the driver's side. That's a bit rough.

So any suggestions?

Also, there is only one fuel filter on a '84 12A GSL, correct? Wanted to be sure there isn't another to replace.

Looks like you'd have to break the door trim to get it off unless you can open the door somehow. I'd wait until I found another panel, and only then would I try to remove yours. Be careful, too, not to damage anything that you don't have a good spare of, if it can be avoided. Your problem is going to be at the back of the door where the handle rods meet near the striker part of the door. I'd remove the door pull and the handle surround, then remove the screws in the little pull cup and under the door handle. Finally, I'd lift as best I could and try to free the panel from door, trying to pry it loose at the window. If you can get that upper lip disloged, you can get in there to fix it, but I'd wait until I had a spare. If you'd rather have a working door and a FUBAR panel though, go ahead.

Probably your door handle needs to be replaced. These are made out of pot-metal and the little arm that holds the push-pull-rod breaks off very easily.

$29.95 at Mazdatrix or much cheaper at any pick-a-part, but you never know how long a junkyard replacement is going to last. I'd go Mazdatrix, but that's me...

find a friendly cop or wrecker guy with a slim jim and have him unlock it , after that its fairly easy.

IM me.... ive had to replace it also...spare USED handle...

its that arm off the door handle that long duck speaks of..

-Ryan

I've had to replace at least three of these door handles in my RX's lifetime! It is that little pot-metal lever arm as stated above.

i had this problem but i dont have locks or the pins and rods, took them out and shaved the locks cause of safty, but it was my power door locks. the actuaters broke off the screw but both my doors did this luckly both times only one door locked. so what i did was take off the door panles while it was closed and pulled the mechanism open from the inside. to do this simply take off all the screw covers on the arm rest, i think there is like 5. then unsrew them all and take off the cover around the handall. then pull the pannel up, while pulling the door handall and it should lift out just kinda move the seat and it will come right off. this will expose the inner door, now there is a horizontal rod that connects to the actual lock meachanism, pull that to the front of the car and it should open.

unlock it.

sounds tricky i know, but toward the back of the door there is a little tab like thing, pull up on it carefully and then pull on the handle, should open right up


-sorry couldn't resist

how many times has the man said that the door is unlocked???

*sigh* i was joking....sorry i thought it was funny

it was, i went back and read it again. you were being a smart ass and it was funny. no worries.

hehe

gotta say what you think is funny.

This happened to me just yesterday. The interior arm broke off on the outside door handle but the inside handle would still work. Unfortunately as I was driving around the door swung open and I had to quickly shut it and lock it. Well, it seemed like the rod that's normally attached to the handle got jammed somewhere unsavory (couldn't lower the window past halfway either) and it jammed the locking mechanism so I couldn't completely unlock it nor open it from the inside (the lock would pop up but not as far as it should).
Fortunately you can remove the inside door panel while the door is closed. You have to remove all the screws and push the lock tab down while pulling out/up on the panel. Sure 'nuff the rod was jamming the lock so right now I'm taping it to the inside of the door. That way I can still use the handle from the inside to open the door while I wait for a new handle to arrive. I checked mazdatrix and they were trying to sell handles for 50$! Found some aftermarket ones off ebay for 20$ http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...sPageName=WDVW

The metal Mazda used was very weak. I scratched my door when my outside handle broke on my driver's door :mad:

Ok, opened up that door.

Here's what I found:

When I pull the handle, inside or outside, it pulls on a threaded rod that is disconnected. Currently that rod is poking upwards, in the way of the window. When I push it back towards the door (towards the outside) I can roll the window down freely. Good thing.

So is that rod supposed to connect to something that may have broken? I didn't see any pieces of metal in the bottom, just a few rubber pieces.

I have more pictures, but my limit is passed for the day ):

Here's a few pictures, when my limit resets.

Picture #1 (Click Smilie) https://www.rx7club.com//images/smilies/smile.gif

Picture #2 (Click Smilie) https://www.rx7club.com//images/smilies/smile.gif

I guess that rod is just the connection to make the outer handle work. Now that I've moved things around in the door, the inner handle is working.

As long as the inside works, I can take a passenger without explaining that the door won't open. Kinda a bad thing in an accident ):

Looking back at my pictures (I took several more than I posted) I see a loop on the left (from inside) side of the handle, but not on the right side, where it appears the handle connects. I don't see any broken hardware anywhere though. I assume the rod threads into the handle somehow, and that part broke off? Does something possibly connect between the 2 sides of the handle?

I guess I'll have to look at the driver's side to find out. Might as well check out why THAT window isn't going down correctly while I'm at it.