So after feeling the agony of defeat with the heater cables I decided to take on another maintenance item that has been on the back burner. Besides, it rained in the Central Valley today so driving around was out of the question. This was one I was sure I could complete and feel the thrill of victory.
When getting out of my car passengers would have to lift the handle and bump the door with a significant amount of force to get the latch to release. A quick search on here indicates that everyone prefers putting some type of bend in the rod that runs from the interior door handle to the latch release mechanism. I tried that and it didn't seem to help much with my situation so I removed the interior door spindle/assemble from the door and gently pulled on the wire rod and found that the door opened very easily. With the spindle assembly attached to the door it wouldn't pull the latch mechanism far enough to release the latch.
The problem I found was that the forward assembly only pivots and moves forward about a 1/2 an inch when you lift up on the interior door handle and in order for the door latch to release the mechanism inside the door cavity needs to move almost 3/4 of an inch or a little more. I didn't measure for exactness. It occurred to me that the rod had to be shortened at least a 1/4 of an inch. I reattached the rod and by holding the mechanism inside the door I could eyeball how far forward the handle spindle assembly had to be in order for the door latch to open more easily. It actually required me to put tension on the rear release mechanism for the door to open without extra force. I bent the rod about 1/4 of an inch shorter and tested it. The door worked amazingly well. I trimmed off the excess rod and reassembled the door and put the panel back on.
The door opens so well, I did the driver's side. I feel like I accomplished something today.
