Replacing a front door exterior door handle on a 1998 mercury mountaineer?

Answer 1

Answer

Remove inner door panel for access

I found this response on antoher bulliten. Hope it helps:

Okay, just finished this project on my truck.

I'd discovered that the return springs on my drivers side exterior door handle were broken, and the handle felt "limp" or "loose". I'd read a few other posts about people who'd had this same problem. Some had pulled the handle out, and replaced the spring, others had replaced the whole assembly. I chose to replace the whole assembly.

I bought the new part from Ford for $41.

Steps:

Before you begin, you'll want to just barely crack the window open, maybe about an inch or so. For me, with the window all the way up, the bracket that the window lays on interferes with the removal and installation of the door handle. You'll likely need to move the window up and down a few times (I did).

The first part is to remove the door panel. It's held in by the two screws just above the inside door handle, and about 8 of the plastic anchors. I won't go into great detail on this, since it's covered in a few places, and isn't terribly difficult.

Once you have the door panel off, you'll want to remove the one bolt which holds in the "outer" window tract and move it out of the way. I layed it in the bottom of the door as per this suggestion. With it still intact, you won't be able to see, or really work with the rod that connects the door handle to the door latch mechanism. You can see the bolt which needs to be removed, highlighted in the image below.

With this out of the way, you'll be able to see where the linkage between the door handle and the latch mechanism meet. You'll want to detatch the linkage from the latch mechanism by "unclipping" the yellow fastener that holds them together. You'll want to pull the tab on the fastener toward you. Once it's open, be sure to mark the linkage with a permanent marker indicating where it rests in the fastener. Here's a picture to describe this better. Pull the tab that the arrow points to toward you.

Now you'll be able to rotate the linkage so that it "unhooks" from the door handle. The following picture should help you visualize this.

Now, with that linkage disconnected, you'll need to drill out the rivets which fasten the door handle to the door. You can do this by holding the door handle up, and drilling from outside.

Once you've drilled out the front side, you may need to get into the inside of the door, and "finish off" the rivets from the back. The way these are designed, the rivet pulls into a sleeve, and on the inside of the door, it looks like a banana peel. You may need to bend, or cut off the banana peel parts in order to pull the rivets out from the front side of the door. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of this.

Once the rivets are out completely, you should be able to pull the whole door handle assembly upward, then rotate the bottom of the assembly upward, and pull the handle out.

You're half way there! The door handle is out!

Now just reverse that motion with the new door handle to put it in place. You can safely rivet, or bolt the new one in place now. I've heard of many people using bolts, but I chose to replace it with rivets. I had a 1/8 x 5/8 steel rivets, which were deep enough, but the head was too small, so I used two SAE #6 washers to make up the difference. Below is a picture of the rivet assembly I used, and the finished product. You'll probably need someone to help you hold the inside washer, if you go that route. I'm sure there are rivets that are the right size, but I had to use what I had on hand.

Now re-attach the linkage to the door handle, and then to the latch mechanism. I'd test to make sure the door handle works at this point. If it does, you can proceed with assembling the rest of the door.

Replace the window tract and the bolt you removed at the beginning. Re-stick the door liner to the door, and replace the door panel.

That's it! You're done!