Door handle actuation orientation

The right and left handles should operate in the same direction. So If one side lifts up to open the door the other side should do the same. Your car is wearing two right side handles. Its like wearing to right shoes and never being able to make a left turn.

@Robert M posted:

The right and left handles should operate in the same direction. So If one side lifts up to open the door the other side should do the same. Your car is wearing two right side handles. Its like wearing to right shoes and never being able to make a left turn.

Or like having two left feet and trying to dance .  Ok, so you're saying that the standard direction is that the levers pull downward and back?  For some reason, that doesn't seem natural to me, but perhaps I'll rotate the lever one notch down on the spline so that pulling it down is encouraged / intuitive.

Is the passenger side simply mounted upside down?

@Jon T posted:

Is the passenger side simply mounted upside down?

It depends.  If you're asking whether it's the same part, but one of them is rotated 180° from the other, then it seems like yes.  But I don't know that it's the passenger side that's upside down, it might be that it's the driver side that's upside down.

Looking closer, someone went out of their way to allow a driver side mechanism to function on the passenger side.  Not only did it need to be mounted upside down, it had to be installed at an angle.  Rotating the passenger side 180 won’t work, unless you could also change which face is pressed against the door, and drill two new holes.  I’m guessing that won’t work.

I think Robert is correct.

I do know that I faced my door handles facing the dash with the tips turned slightly up past horizontal and you pulled back toward you to open. I did that so the tip of the handle was further away from clothing etc so as not to get caught on something and opened accidentally.

Handle orientation should not be a problem. The handle and the lock are splined. You should have 16 different positions possible. Your parts could be different, I guess, but I have never seen one that is not splined.

I'll bet that your operator cable is going to rattle big time. You should have a rod there.

I agree with Jim. Cables are no good unless there are two(as in aircraft control surfaces) in pull-pull fashion.

Use a rod, less slop and vibration.

I've never seen a cable with a turnbuckle in a door.

I use thin rod ( ACE Hdw) Install it slightly longer than needed then grasp it with a vise grip bending it to take up the slack, adjust accordingly ....done.

@Jon T posted:

Looking closer, someone went out of their way to allow a driver side mechanism to function on the passenger side.  Not only did it need to be mounted upside down, it had to be installed at an angle.  Rotating the passenger side 180 won’t work, unless you could also change which face is pressed against the door, and drill two new holes.  I’m guessing that won’t work.

I think Robert is correct.

Good catch, I had meant to mention the pass side angle in my original post.  I agree, the current part in hand wouldn't work, I'd have to toss it.  But I would think the correct part (the "Left" side 111837021 version), which is a mirror image of the right side version thereby with actuator lever pointing down, would work?  Even while at that same angle?

@Jim Gilbert - Madison, Mississippi & @DannyP & @Alan Merklin, I agree that a rod is better, and some of you usual suspects discussed as much in this thread https://www.speedsterowners.co...ic/door-handle-cable which I encourage future readers to review.

But I'll say that I received the car with a cable, so I was too dumb to realize it should be a rod when I replaced the cables to include the turnbuckle block.  That said, the cable works just fine, and no rattling whatsoever (maybe I'm just lucky that the cable's floating in the middle of the door not touching anything).

Really my main problem is (1) which part I'm supposed to buy:  Is it 111837021?  What's the diff between that and 111837021B or 111837021Z?  (2) Are the handles supposed to pull up or pull down?  I can choose whatever's my preference, but would like to put weight toward what's original.  (3) Any other issue spotting here, like the weird angle?

Original Speedster interior. Replica door locks are not installed in this location. My door lock handle is

My interior:

@Robert M & @Jim Gilbert - Madison, Mississippi, and for what it's worth, the CMC Speedster Build Manual (circa 1984) seems to provide that the door lever should rotate up and back, based on the fact that the actuating portion of the door release mechanism is illustrated as pointing downward.  So it's an upward pull of the door lever that tugs the rod/cable, causing the door to open.  That's what I'm going with anyway:

For future readers, closing the loop on what ultimately happened here:  I purchased and installed the "Left" side version (part # 111837021) on the passenger side, it works perfectly.  

Also, it worked fine with the diagonal bolt pattern, in fact it gave the cable more clearance because the actuation lever "nose" points down.  However, that brought one unforeseen but still welcome result- the door handle is now biased upward slightly because the splined bolt is rotated.  In other words, instead of the handle being perfect horizontal, it's already slightly rotated upward, which makes it clear which way to pull it.