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The exterior door handle on my 1970 pushes in kind of crooked so it scrapes inside the housing. It looks like the pin that acts as a hinge has made its way partially out of the back side (towards the rear of the door). I figured I would take the assembly out and repair or replace it. The problem is it will not come out. That little hinge pin gets hung up and will not allow the assembly to come up and out. I can get the forward side (towards front of car) to raise up some but not the rear. There is no room whatsoever to try and push that pin back into place. Any ideas or suggestions?
No intention of insulting your knowledge and experiences here...
You are attempting to pull the entire handle mechanism from the door, right? If the actuator rod and two bolts are removed from the underside of the handle assembly, it should lift out, even if the flapper pivot pin is extended on one side. (Those pivot pins are just crushed on the ends to act as stops, so not difficult to fix once it's out.)
I can raise it up just a bit…. Maybe 1/32 of an inch to see that the pin is catching. Naturally, I tried wiggling it every direction to get it to slip free with no luck. The other side, I can raise about 3/4 of an inch until it binds up. It’s definitely the pivot pin catching…. It looks like it’s a bunch - maybe 1/4-1/2 inch of pin that has extended outward. I’m estimating that length based on what I can see from the top when I hold down the lever.
Thanks for the replies. I should have clarified- I have the door panel off, the rod disconnected, and the two nuts out. It is free and would normally wiggle up and out. However, the pivot pin has worked its way back some and is catching under the top of the door so that I can not lift it up and out. If the pin had floated the other direction (towards front of car), I would be able to push it back into place from inside the door. However, since it drifted towards the rear of the door, there’s no way I can think of to reach it and push it forward.
Can you get needle-nosed pliers in there to bend the hinge pin? Or maybe diagonal cutters to clip it off? (replacing the wire would be pretty straightforward)
I did try just about everything to try to get behind it (from underneath) and push the pin back into place. Unfortunately, it’s so far back in there that I wasn’t able to. The only thing I can think of doing to get it out is to push down on the lever and destroy the internals from the top… cutting, prying, etc until I’m able to get the pin cut off or moved over. For now, I just buttoned it all up - it still works sort of. Figured I would take a few months and think about it and make it a project for the off season. If you have any other suggestions, please post them. I’m sure someone else has had this happen?
I know it is very tight quarters around the chrome door release. The key lock is no piece of cake to replace either, especially if you are not sure which key lock fits the drivers or passenger door. In most cases I have been able to remove something ie. Nuts, Bolts, Rusted Screws, with my trusty Dremel. If you purchase or can borrow the flexible attachment you could attach a cutting disc to release the door part. Unfortunately I don’t believe anyone sells parts for the door release, and you will most likely have to purchase the entire assembly. Maybe start looking on eBay for a used one, so you can mix and match parts with your original door release.
I have an old one missing a stud, oxidized and spring is no good. If you want it to try and salvage the pin it is yours for whatever shipping runs. Not sure how you would go about it though. As 67:72 stated, the ends are kind of mushroomed or swaged to supposedly not allow what your pin is doing.
Last edited by litevette; Apr 21, 2025 at 06:47 AM.
I appreciate the pictures- that helps me to visualize where the pin exists the housing. So far, I’ve been living with it. I’m thinking that eventually it will break and that should actually make it easier to remove (maybe).
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Exterior door handle
