Thought I’d do a write up on this considering our craptastic plastic door handles

Remove rear triangle piece from door. It has 2 clips that hold it on so be careful not to just yank it off and break those clips. I usually work from the top and edges.


Behind that you have 1 10mm nut and 1 10mm bolt


You should be able to slide the handle out just a bit to see the 2 rods behind it. 1 is to the lock and 1 is to the handle. You'll want to push the plastic clip to your left making it swing clockwise (This is all from the perspective of you standing outside the car looking in) to release the rod


The other rod will need to go right or counter clock wise


You should now be able to see behind the door handle (blah that pic came out bad). There are 4 screws holding the door pin down.


I just pulled out 2 of the screws and loosened the other 2 so that I could move them out of the way. Once moved out of the way push the rod out that holds the handle in place


I fished around for a while trying to get the new handle in without success i eventually had to take the screw out of the opening piece that the thicker rod went into (I have no idea what the name of it is)


Fish in the new handle and hook everything back up. This is what was causing mine not to work right



Add any tips if you have any.

 

did you replace with stock or try the aluminum replacements like these guys sell?

http://www.rx7doorhandles.com/

 

I got mine from JKL racing but yes same aluminum handles

 

They are different.

I won the rx7doorhandles aluminum handles. They are a viable option but with the price of the new handles you can get from goodfellas, I'm not sure which is best. Its great the aluminum ones won't break but they do get hot to the tough. I miss the OEM ones. If you grease the joint you shouldn't have any problems with broken handles. Especially if you buy a new one. I think alot of people forget (myself included) that most of these cars and door handles are OLD.

 

would they look better if left metallic or better if painted black?

 

I got the aluminum ones after two driver side handles broke in 2 months. Mine were black all ready and fit just like oem. I like the aluminum because it will never break again. Nothing like opening the driver door from the passenger side in a crowded parking lot, with everyone looking at you.

 

a tip, be sure to lube up the pivots with bearing grease before reinstalling your new handle.

 

oh how I remember doing this a few months ago, took a break to go watch Jennifer's Body with some friends, decided after the movie my time would have been better spent fixing the damn handle.

anyone wanna sell me the interior cover piece? the PO tried fixing the handle and lost it.

 

Sweet write up and nice pics I'm about to attempt this tonight!

 

It's easy, I had to do mine a couple weeks ago. The only issues I had are that the plastic clips that hold the rods are very old and brittle. Luckily however, when you break them (like I did) they're available at Autozone, O Reilly's, Advanced Auto Parts, etc. The other issue was that the part of the new aluminum door handle that houses the hinge rod was too wide to fit properly. I had to file it down slightly but otherwise fitment was great! Very easy to do.

 

Great job with the pic's and write up. It looks like I'll be using this very shortly!

 

is there a way to rig this while waiting for a new handle? I'm pretty sure the broken part in my handle is the same as the one in the write up, the plastic clip part.

I'm sick of opening the door from my passenger side.

 

Thanks for the advice/ thread. It made things much easier.
I just got my set of aluminum door handles in the mail and there was no fitment issues at all. They popped right in.

 

thanks for the write up...

Wish this was here the first time I pulled mine apart...
Stuff like this is why I love 7club

 

When did you do that Dennis?

 

"craptastic" is an appropriate word for so many stock parts on these cars - I always shake my head at the "keep it stock" crowd - for many of us it's increasingly difficult to think of something on these cars that hasn't been upgraded....door handles is just another item in a list that is pages long

we're all officially insane

 

hmmmm

 

Door handle lasted 17yrs I don't consider that bad by any means. Also the plastic ones are lighter and in a car they tried to keep as light as possible it makes sense.

 

Exactly, if the original door handle lasted 17 years why not replace it with the ORIGINAL door handle and get another 17 years out of it. I have owned three 7's and never had a broken handle. I did replace both of mine on the last 7 only because they were scratched. You can buy an entire outside door assembly for $200.00 why waste money buying just the handle?

 

It also doesn't get hot like a metal one. I had to get mine painted and it still gets kinda hot.

 

Plastic or metal door handles are the same price, 203$ from Ray friend of mine just went through this.

 

For $200 you get the ENTIRE exterior door assembly not just the handle.

 

The door handles on my '65 El Camino were just fine when I sold her.....so was just about every thing else on it

*sigh*

the f ing disaster

 

from who?

 

It has been awhile since I purchased one but I just checked on one of the mazdaparts sites.

I'm sure Ray can get them to you a lot cheaper.

http://www.partswebsite.com/mazdapar...imagecallout=3

We had a group buy on them about four years ago.
https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...m+door+handles


Check out post #10
https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...m+door+handles