When i received the car it was hard to get the door to shut. Most of the time when it would shut i couldn't get it open with the outside handle...i had to use the inside handle. The night i was loading the car on the trailer to take it to the paint shop the cable on the inside handle broke. I used some wire to hold the door shut and figured i would replace all the cable one i got the car back from the paint shop. At the paint shop they removed the door to paint it. when putting the door back on they were able to get the door to shut and latch. Now i can't get it unlatched. I have removed the exterior handle and tried manually pushing the rods up and down. It's not budging. I need help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Any suggestions????

 

My door handle moves up and down but doesn't open at all...

 

My passenger door does some similar stuff. I can take the handle off and jiggle the rods and nuthin. Anyhoo...

What works for me is to lift the handle quickly a few times (3 or 4).

If I lift the handle slow, it never opens.

 

Yeah.. it definitely won't open at all. Does that mean I need a new door handle or is there a way to fix it without getting a new one?

 

The rapid handle thing worked for me when I had the problem, but you risk breaking the already frail plastic door handles. What I did was take my whole interior door panel off. At the end of the rod, there is an oval-like shape that has a pin that releases the door. When the rod is pushed down all the way the door opens, but the door handle does not shift the rod enough to to push down the pin.

Solution: wedge something (like a bolt) and get it secured on the other side so it doesn't fall out of the oval piece and this will close up the gap enough so that the rod can push down on the pin.

I know thats confusing, so I'm opening up MacPaint right now to illustrate.

 

Hope this helps. You have to remove the interior door panel and clear plastic shield to get even remotely close to seeing the end of the rod. Most of it will be by feel, but this should be enough to get you started.

 

You guys are talking about a handle that moves but doesn't open the door.

The OP is saying his exterior door handle doesn't move at all.

Ironically mine started doing the exact same thing today. The driver's exterior door handle won't move at all. I can open the door from the inside, I can lock and unlock the door with both the key and with the switch, but the exterior handle won't move at all.

I was about to take the inner panel off but thought I'd search here first.

 

per page S-11, popped the inner cover off and then removed nuts holding the exterior door handle. Pulled it out about 2", couldn't see anything restricting movement. Pulled off the passenger side (since it was so easy) to compare.

Put a rag under the exterior handle (to catch any excess and keep it off the door/paint) then sprayed some PTFE (Teflon) on the hinge points and let it soak for a minute or two. It works fine now. Sprayed the passenger side too, as a preventative measure.

 

I had the same problem, door would open but handle was hard to move (almost to the point where I thought I might break it), except it was the passenger door. Sprayed some dw40 on the handle, also using some rags, and moved it a few times. Now it opens fine.

 

Thanks people, I will be trying this today. Late

 

so i opened up the door handle assembly and saw that the actual door handle isn't connected to anything.. I looked at the passenger side and the handle is connected/glued?? to a metal rod that allows you to open the door. right?


this is the drivers side, and if you notice, the black door handle is not connected to the copper tone thing...
<a href="http://s79.photobucket.com/albums/j149/r93xseven/?action=view&current=DSC01699.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j149/r93xseven/DSC01699.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

this is the passenger side which is not broken..

<a href="http://s79.photobucket.com/albums/j149/r93xseven/?action=view&current=DSC01704.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j149/r93xseven/DSC01704.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

 

damn it..

 

Passenger..


broken side(driver)...

 

so do I need a new door handle or do I need the whole assembly?? please someone help.. thanks.

 

I bought a complete setup from Fritz flynn and it now works perfect...if yours is anything like mine was I would recommend buying a new setup.

 

do you have a link for it?

 

oh.. he's a rx-7 club member huh? I'll PM him... thanks man.