So, the title says it all. I need to remove the outside drivers side door handle. I have the front nut off, but I can't reach the rear bolt. From searching, it appears that there is supposed to be a notch in the glass. There isn't in this car. There's a nice handy hole to reach the bolt if there was a notch, though. It seems to me that I have to remove the glass to get to this bolt.
This starts my next problem. The FSM says to roll the window down some to remove the bolts. It has power windows, but the battery is shot and I had to remove one of the terminal clamps to get the battery out. Now even if I could get power to the car, the drivers side window switch is broken.
So basically, can I get the window glass out without moving it, or am I going to have to break the glass to get to the nut?

 

dude, use a battery booster, or jumper cables and another car, give your car juice. fixing the driver side window switch is EZ, all you need is a small, flat screwdriver. pull up the switch plate, there will be wires connected to both switches. on the sides of the switch on the underside of the plate, there will be little plastic notches. simply lift up the notch, and slide the guts out of the switch. when you get it open, there will be 2 rockers made of copper, and 2 ball bearings. all you need to do is to clean the contacts, put 'er back together, and bam! you should be able to roll the window down. i recently took off my driver side door handle as well, and i had to have the window in both up and down positions to get both nuts off.

 

I don't know about a notch but I took mine out when I painted the car. One comes out with the window up and one comes out with the window down. So hook up a temp battery and roll the window down, you could even jump it from another source.

 

The switch internals are gone. I can't move the window unless I can somehow jumper a wire to bypass the switch.
I already got the one out that requires the windows to be down - it can be done with it up its just a PITA. The other one is truly impossible to reach with the glass I have. I'll take a pic of it real quick.

 

Ok, heres what it looks like. I circled the nut I need to remove. And yes the glass is all the way up.

So the question is now how to I remove the glass?

 

The only way to remove the handle is to move the glass out of the way. Can you bypass the switch and use the motor to roll the window down with Aux. power? Pull the wires from the switch and put it directly to 12v.

 

I guess thats what I'm gonna try. I'm still debating on whether or not to just break the damn window. Theres already broken glass all around anyway, another piece or two wont kill me.

 

It is easier than you think. 2 screws and a slight twist and whall'a you could work for an auto glass company

 

Two screws for what? Removing the glass, or removing the door handle?

 

2 -Phillips/12mm or 10mm screws for the window

2 -10mm nuts for the handle

 

yea its pretty easy to take the door handle off, you should be slapped for giving up that easy and thinking about breaking that window:P,

 

This isn't as simple as yall are making it out to be. I can't move the window, and I have to have the window out of the way to get to the nut. Besides, its not like breaking the window is so bad, its just gonna go to the crusher with the rest of the fram when I'm done with it. I'm gonna go screw with it again tomorrow to try to get the window off, though.

 

If you are working on a junked car, then **** it---break the window. I dont see why there is debate. Anyway, a long 10mm wrench can remove both the window (secured by 2 phillip+10mm bolts) and the door handle (secured by 2 10mm bolts.) Just grab a rock and trash the window.

 

My current plan is to drill a hole with a hole saw. I haven't actually looked to hard to se if itll work, though. I'm gonna try to get the window off, but if it takes much work, then **** it. And the bolts are phillips+10mm? If so, then its no biggie. The fsm made out like you had to get screwdriver access.

 

Dude, just grab a spare bat, yank the wires going to the window motor and do a direct jump to the bat. That will lower the window. Then you can take it out and get the door handle, you can also save the window and try to sell it or somthing.

 

...and smash the window! But honestly, I took the windows out of my '86, and I really can't see how getting them back in would be possible. I basically had to cut the door up to do it. But maybe I was just missing some sort of key information. I didn't really care at the time since that was the goal: cut up the doors and remove the glass.

 

I hate to be a "new" guy around here and talk trash, but ****, if you can't get a window, or door handle out before it pisses you off enough to go to a computer and type out your complaints, you should get somebody to do it for you.

I've worked on cars that were a pain in the ***, and this one isn't at all. I promise. If it's hard you're missing something painfully obvious. I promise.

Connect a battery to the wires to the motor. + to +. - to -. Try different combinations of wires, till it works. You won't mess anything up. You can even use the battery off of a cordless drill. Doesn't matter what voltage, it will work.

It seems to me like the suggestions above had this answered a while ago. Sorry to sound like a dick, I'm trying to be more like a football couch, or a drill sergant. You can do this. It's how things are done.

 

The point of this thread was to ask how to get the handle out. For the last 5 or 6 days I have either been taking care of my 1 year old daughter or stripping down this car, so I'm not going to do a lot of extra work for a part thats only gonna make me 20 bucks. I didn't mean to come accross as snappy yesterday but people kept telling how easy it was when the normal way to do it doesn't work. Plus I was sleep deprived and sore from pulling stuff from the engine bay, not to mention fixing my wife's bumper. Anyway, thanks for the constuctive comments posted here. I should be able to figure it out now.

 

You can use power from the door lights. They connect directly to the window motor and will bring the glass down without a switch. To make it go up somply reverse the poles. You can wire upo a home made switch and make it your permenant window switch.

 

^^^^ I think he said the battery was dead.

Any luck man? I hear you on having a lot of **** going on and not being clear headed. It happens.

 

Just use a cordless drill (makita) battery, and jumper the power window motor wires.