944 Door handle Removal??
 

Hello everyone.

Can anyone tell me the correct procedure to remove and replace the outer door handle drop-pin on a 1990 Porsche 944 S2? I've removed all the door trim and one of the metal plates but I can't see how to remove the other metal plate.

Your help would be much appreciated. [sm=hail.gif]

RE: 944 Door handle Removal??
 

Lol, first let me say have fun. Next: remove the phillips screw inside the door jam. You can then wiggle the rear of the door handle out a little. With a long screwdriver, pop off the white plastic rod. Pull out a little more. Then you take 2 long screwdrivers, and using one to pry with, and one to hold against, pop the ball and socket joint off (where the adjusting rod actually attaches to the door mechanism). Then by pulling and rotating, you can work the handle out of the car. I think you have to rotate the handle almost 180 degrees to get it to come out. I will say that for me anyways, this is the most frustrating job on a 944. A clutch job isn't even this frustrating. Sometimes it goes together in 10 minutes, other times you are sitting there 3 hours later cussing. Getting it apart is the easy part, trying to get everything back together is another story. I still need to adjust my drivers handle, but because i know the job, i keep putting it off, lol.....

RE: 944 Door handle Removal??
 

Oh, and you can't remove much of the door to help. Everything is done through that stupid tiny hole the door handle sits in, from the outside.

http://karl.wilen.us/images/Lock1.JPG

RE: 944 Door handle Removal??
 

Thanks for the advice PorscheDoc.

I'll make sure I have plenty of spare time before I attempt to do it. It's now autumn and getting dark very early here in U.K. and I'll have to fix it outside as I only have a small garage, so I can't open the door very far.

I'll tell you how I got on.......

[sm=youreright.gif]

RE: 944 Door handle Removal??
 

I replaced the door handle drop link on my Porsche 944 the weekend gone and I can report that I had no real problems. I don't know if was just luck, it was a bit fiddly, but it only took me about an hour from start to finish. It might have been that after what PorscheDoc told me, I was expecting it to be worse than it was and expected it to take me all day.

Thanks for the help PorscheDoc, I certainly wouldn't have done it this quick (if at all) without your words of advice!!! It's so much better to be able to get in through the drivers door than the passengers.

[sm=americanasmiley.gif]

RE: 944 Door handle Removal??
 

Lol, congratulations....now since you are practiced up, come do my doors :D

RE: 944 Door handle Removal??
 

Nice...;)

RE: 944 Door handle Removal??
 

No prob's....if you pay for my flight from England and back!!!

[sm=smiley4.gif]

RE: 944 Door handle Removal??
 

If you remove the door panel. Near the back edge there is a small opening in the metal. If you take a long screwdriver you can pop off and pop on the ball and socket joint off real easy!

RE: 944 Door handle Removal??
 

Popping the ball off isn't the problem, getting it back on is. So i finally did the drivers door the other day not because i wanted to, lol. I had the car at the house without a hood, or bumper cover (see paint thread), and i had taken the drivers door handle out to adjust it a week earlier. Something came up and i didn't get it done, so i lef it. I had also adjusted the window slightly, but left a couple of the bolts out. So saturday morning i need to get up to the shop at 6am to get ready for an Audi/VW event. I also needed to take the car up because i have a couple of 930's I need to be driving to break in the new motors. So 5:30 in the morning, its 5 degrees out. I go out, start the car after crawling throug the passenger door. Window is just cracked a little. Being half asleep i push the button up. Of course since the bolts are out of the mechansim, the whole window flops forward. Try moving it back down, now it pops out of the rails. Swearing begins. So i try and fix the damn window in the dark, and cold weather. It only gets worse as does the swearing. Finally i get pissed off and rip the entire windown out and throw it in the back. So now i have a 10 mile drive to work with the window down, thank god i grew up in ND, so the cold doesn't bother me so much. Get to the shop and later that day pull out the rear window rail which gives out full access to the door handle, and get it fixed. I tried like crazy with that rail in place, and there is no way you can get your fingers in there if the ball doesn't snap on easily which mine wasn't. Pulling the window and the rear rail sure make it an easy job though :D Also greased the heck out of everything and it works like a charm again. Next the passenger side.....