Door handle release screw problem [solved]

[RedRider]

So I went to swap out the door handles (five doors). Ran into a snag on one of them. When I tried pushing the new door handle onto the door, the internal mechanism shifted inboard and the loose 5mm release screw came out altogether. It fell to the inside of the door but I was able to fish it out.

I made the unfortunate mistake of clicking the mechanism back into place before putting the screw back in, thinking I would just be able to screw it back in afterwards. Nope! I realized too late it is supposed to be a captive screw. So for comparison, one of the working doors looks like this (see how the black part is on top of the screw):

And the problem door looks like this now:

So how screwed am I? Do you think there is a way I can reproduce the initial conditions where the latch mechanism was pushed inward, so that I can try to get the screw back in and sandwich it in there? I tried pushing on it a bit but didn't want to go too crazy with it. No luck. I figured there might be a trick to disengage it.

I have the workshop manual and I see all the steps to take the latch mechanism out and it doesn't look like a fun time so I'm looking for any guidance to avoid that.

Thanks all.

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[Ducati1098]

You’ll have to pull the whole door latch/interior door handle assembly out. There’s no other way.

 

[RedRider]

Well @Ducati1098, I'm happy to report there is another way. This method surprisingly worked well and only took about an hour. I'm posting it here in case some future victim runs into the same problem.

1. Take a long flat screw driver to pry with and a hex key inserted into the screw hole. Use leverage on the screw driver to pop the mechanism out.

(hold onto the hex key while prying. I didn't hold it just to get the photo)

2. Insert a smaller hex key into the gap to keep the mechanism from clicking back into place while working.

3. Tape up the 5mm screw on the screwdriver/socket driver so you can work with it without it falling off into the door cavity.

4. For the next step, I removed the door and laid it on the ground. This is probably optional but did it just in case anything came loose, it wouldn't be a pain to retrieve.

Tighten the screw. If you apply some downward pressure and leverage while tightening, it should go in straight (won't cross-thread). The taped down hex key should help prevent the latch mechanism from snapping into place while you tighten the screw.

Remove the screwdriver once the screw is tightened down. I had to use pliers on the socket and tape to wiggle it free from the screw. It should look like this:

5. Remove the hex key and use a long screw driver to pry down on the ajar mechanism taking care to set the screw head underneath the black part. It will take some jimmying but it's not too hard.

It may be worth noting that I had the plastic key cap plate on the door exterior removed the whole time. I think, but not positive, that the key cap plate engages with the interior mechanism to help keep it from moving around, so it may be important to remove it while trying to pop the mechanism back in place so that it has a bit of wiggle room.

It should look like this after prying it back into place:

From here, re-insert the key cap plate on the exterior and follow the process in this video to get the door handle reinstalled:



6. Success:

 

[Ducati1098]

lol wow. Honestly can’t believe you got that to go back in. Well done

 

[AtomicKoalaJelly]

Out of curiosity, I haven't had to deal with a door handle on a Bronco at work yet. That looks an awful lot like the ones that you typically only turn a few times to loosen and release the handle instead of completely removing it on most vehicles. Was that this screw?

 

[RedRider]

Out of curiosity, I haven't had to deal with a door handle on a Bronco at work yet. That looks an awful lot like the ones that you typically only turn a few times to loosen and release the handle instead of completely removing it on most vehicles. Was that this screw?

Yes. It's that same screw.

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