Today, part of the inside of the driver's side door handle cracked so i can't open the door from the outside anymore. Is there anyone, or anywhere where you can purchase the whole thing? It's for a black 1989 T2.

thanks
thomas

 

Try www.mazdatrix.com but I'm sure it will be expensive. I got mine from a junkyard, had it painted white, and it has been good. This was like 4 years ago too.

You could go on Ebay as well, who knows what is on there. Lots of the guys who part out their cars on Ebay you can just e-mail and ask for a part and make them an offer. That's what I did for my center console.

 

I just had to deal with this thanks to my kids...Mazdatrix has them ('bout $110, I think), but I decided to play Superman & see if I could fix it...

Getting the outside handle out was fairly straightforward, I used .041 safety wire to pull the inside window crank handle circlip outta there (pull direction-towards the handle)...Gently snap open the rod plastic retainers to get the door lock & handle actuating rods outta the way once inside the door

My crack was about 1/8" below the hinge pin on the handle assy, I managed to install an aluminum doubler with structural adhesive (Fastweld 10) and a 1/8" stainless pop rivet on each side of the crack. Getting the rivet gun straight to pull the rivet was an adventure, there's a definite lack of maneuvering room in this area, I had to do some "shaving" in a couple of areas to pull it off. It appears to be successful so far, as long as the kids don't break it again I'll be O.K.

 

Oh, forgot to mention- If we adjusted the open actuating rods on our handles DOWN a couple of threads (at the white threaded retainer location just below the handle), I bet we wouldn't break so many of 'em...This allows the handle to "unlock" the latch before pulling it up so far...

 

I once read something about miata's... they have something similar in their handles. There's a writeup on how to remove it... I'll look around

 

What exactly would I need to go about doing this? I have had my doors apart a bit and I would be interested in doing this, although it's been about a year so I can't recall what the inside looks like exactly.

 

You're going to need to pull the inner panel off, and (if not removed already), pull the black plastic plug off in the area of the handle nuts. Then take a long, skinny straight slot screwdriver and pry open the white plastic retainer that holds the metal rod (going in from the top of the door might be easier for ya). Now "pop" the metal rod out from the retainer, and reposition back into the retainer, but this time position it 2 to 4 threads down from where it was. Then simply re-lock the retainer, reinstall the door inner panel, and your door should open with much less handle pull (you might want to test it all out BEFORE you put the inner panel back on!!!)...Good luck guys...

 

Damn I'm gonna have to try that