How to remove door panels and replace interior door handles

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Jroc

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Okay a while back my drivers side door handle broke. I ordered new ones from LMC Truck,(Ford wanted $241.11 for just one, and this is Tousley so you know most others would charge you even more) and here's a little write up on how to change it.

EDIT: I originally did this write up in June of 2010, but am just now putting it here(don't know why I didn't add one here when I first made it) so those prices may have changed.

In the pictures you'll notice that the door handle is fine. That's because I decided to do a write up, and take pictures right about the time that I had the other broken handle already off. I took them as I put it back together.

You'll also notice that the LMC handle is chrome looking as opposed to the machined, or bushed metal look on the 03/04 OEM handles so they don't match exactly and you may want to do both handle when doing this to have them match exactly.(LMC Truck sends you both driver and passenger handles as you can't order then individually) With that said I still had the OEM passenger handle on my truck, and it doesn't bother me. Noones ever mentioned it to me so it's not that noticeable unless you're really paying attention to the handles.

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First I'm going to show you how to get the door panel off. I know you say, "that's easy and anyone can do it," but the hard thing about it is if you've never done it to that specific type of vehicle then you have to figure out how its done, and that often results in broken parts. I've broken tabs on a couple of door panels trying to get them off of cars that I had no experience working on B/F. Anyway once you know how to do this it is extremely easy.

First take off the panel that runs along side the window. It's easy to get off as it's held on by two clips, and you just pry it off with a screw driver. B/F prying with a screw drive I like to wrap masking tape(or duck tape whatever) around the screw driver to keep it from scratching paint.
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Next pry the plastic trim that goes around the door handle off. Pry it from the front.
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Then remove the two screws shown in the pictures.
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Then just grab the door handle, and pull up, and it should come right off.

Now to the door handle. Take out the screw shown in the picture, and then push the door handle assembly forward.
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Below is what you have.
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Pop the wire off the old handle, and then route it threw the holes on the new one,(its done just like putting the cable on a throttle body) and then pop the white plastic piece back in place.(put some grease where the cable connects to, and contacts the handle for good measure)
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Lastly before putting everything back together take the rubber boot off the old door handle, and put it on the new one.(be very careful not to tear it when removing it from the old handle) You may have to use some new glue, or something to hold it on there with. The old sticky abrasive was still sticky on mine when I took it off the old door handle so I didn't need to glue it on the new one.
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Now just reverse the steps. Make sure all the hangers on the bottom of the door panel are in the holes the fit in, and getting the panel back over the lock is kind of hard. Just roll the window down, and you can kind of get your fingers in there to guide the lock into place.

Of course if you're wanting the door panel all the way off then you're going to have to unhook the wiring from the power locks/windows/mirrors.

On a hardness scale from 1-10 this is maybe a 2 doing it your first time not knowing how everything connects, and a 1 if you've done it before, or know how everything connects. Its a 10 or 15 minute job(maybe less) if you know what you're doing.
 
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