Repair Interior Door Handle
Many owners have complained about broken door handles and found that once the warranty has expired this can be an expensive fix.
Atljar of JeepCommander.com came up with this solution:
My interior door handle has been broken for sometime. I decided to tear things apart and see what could be done to fix the problem, rather than replace the entire panel, or get parts from a liberty and try to make them work. This should work for any of the doors (mine was drivers front)
Materials:
Plastic epoxy from Loctite
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Nylon spacer 3.8" x .171" x 1"
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Once you have materials, time to take off the door panel. There are three screws to remove:
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Next remove the window switch pack. Gently pry it upwards, then disconnect the three pack wire connections
Then the rest of the panel comes off with standard push clips. You can pry them out with trim tool or pull with your fingers. Clip locations below in black arrows. You will also need to remove 3 more wired connections (red), and the door handle release (green) in order to get the panel off the car.
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From there, you can see where the handle is broken off at the pivot pin. You want to take a large drill bit or dremel and grind out a nice little pocket for the nylor spacer to sit in.
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Next take the nylon spacer, and drill out the center slightly larger so the pivot pin can slide in and out easily. I used a 13/64" drill bit. Then cut the spacer in half. Time for a trial fit. You may need to do some additional trimming of the spacer and the door panel to get a nice level fit, and one that will not impede with the door handle itself.
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Once things line up well, go ahead and mix a little of the epoxy. Leave the handle and spring out, just use the pin and the spacers. Take care not to glue the pin to the spacers, or get any glue on the inside pin area where the handle rides.
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Let this dry for 20-30 minutes, then remove the pin. Grind off any epoxy that is in the way of the handle, and the reassemble the pin, spring, and handle. Glob some more epoxy over everything to make sure you have a good bond Once again, make sure you don't glue the handle in place. (SEE EDIT ON BELOW POSTS, DON'T ASSEMBLE SPRING LIKE SHOWN IN PHOTO)
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Don't install the spring like in the pictures above. It needs to be tensioned so that it is pulling the handle shut. I was able to fix it but it took some time.
UPDATE: You have to line up the spring as shown in the picture, except that the exposed end of the spring should be on the other side of the pin. When you have the spring positioned correctly, you have to push straight down (which is tough since you are putting the spring under tension) and insert the pin at the same time. Good luck!
Let dry. Epoxy will turn dark yellow, and get very hard.
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Handle from other side, before reinstalling
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Put the door panel back on just the way you took it off. Don't forget the wire connections or hooking up the door release wire. Sucks to take everything back apart again when you forget.
Enjoy the cheap fix! This looks like it is going to work and hold for a long while!
