The Long Awaited: The Myth, The Legend, The Douchebaggery

[SlimKlim]

So in order to remove the lock tumblers from their handles you are supposed to have the original key, which will line up all the little wafers and let the thing rotate and fall right out.

I didn't have the original key. But I have tools. :twisted: 2 hours later:



Then I removed this pot metal bullshit from the door. Some previous owner had the brilliant idea of epoxying the window into its track when they removed it, so even though I took out all of the bolts holding the glass into the regulator, it wasn't goin' anywhere, so I was forced to use a clamp to bend the bottom of the window out of the way as much as possible, which gave me exactly 1mm less than the space needed to get the handle out. Brute force ended up being the winning play.



There was a slight wiring discrepancy between the two handles, mine had what looked like two ground wires soldered directly to a plate on the back of the handle near the lock tumbler. The new one had no metal plate. I twisted the wires together so the ground loop would be closed as far as the car was concerned and rolled with it.

Putting the new one in was a thorough pain in the ass because of the aforementioned lack of space to work around the window. I got it popped up into the right place easily enough, but then spent what felt like two hours trying to get it the last 5mm so I could thread the locking collar on from the outside. I tried force, bargaining, begging, inspected everything I could with the flashlight, sent Jake panicky text messages. Nothing worked.

I went inside and took a shower before I broke something and did some soul searching. "Am I gonna have to take it to a shop? For the first time in seven years, is this the project I tap out on? No. Not over a goddamn door handle." I stormed out of the shower with a steely resolve and sure enough, discovered a nearly invisible metal tab inside the door requiring that you slide the handle forward to get around it. Emotional breakdown narrowly avoided.



Sunday I finished reassembling the guts of the door, which is a properly fiddly job because you need to hook in all the little rods that go to the interior handle, exterior handle and lock pin in the correct order. I put the exterior trim back on and hey look, a working door handle! I can park with the windows up again!



...But I can no longer lock the car from this side... I don't know if it has the do with the wiring discrepancy, the key doesn't even turn that direction. The power locks are still hooked up and working correctly, so now I just have to lock it from the trunk or passenger's door. :dunno: Better than how it was.

And the window makes a few new clicks and pops from being subjected to so much abuse. When that fails, I have no idea how I'm going to deal with it because of how someone glued that window into the track. Thanks previous owner. :thumbup:

And I also washed it for like, the first time in 2016.



Oh and the drain plug decided not to seal properly for some reason. I noticed a drop coming off of it when it was still in the air so I cleaned it up and verrrry gently snugged it up beyond the ~20ft-lb spec, but there was still a small spot on the garage floor this morning. I don't know if it just doesn't like the copper crush washer I used or what, but it's deeply irritating to still have it dripping after all of that fuss with the Oil Pan.