Rip It

Searched no luck. My exterior door handles are getting harder and harder to open the doors. The interior handles are and have always worked great, easy.
This leads me to believe that something is worn-out. I would think that with the adjustment having never moved, that adjusting them would only be applying a bandaid. The door handle "bent rod" with the adjuster on ebay is that the solution ? Is there another place to purchase these parts ? Has anyone replaced that rod if so what's the procedure after removing the handle ?
Is the rod pinned, does it require drilling ? Has anyone repaired their handles and been satisfied, if so what did u do ?
I have to do something or its probably going to break or not open the door. TIA

Spidey944

By twisting the "bent rod" that goes to your handle assy, you can tighten or loosen the feel of the door handle "POP" that you feel. There are plenty of repairs listed if u search correctly.

Rip It

Thanks Spidey944. I did another search of posts vise threads and it appears cleaning and adjusting is the cure.

ehall

If you don't adjust them, you will eventually break your door handles, on the inside.

chris951

I have dealt with this on both 944s I have owned and customer 944s when I was a mechanic. It all comes down to the rod and plastic ball-joint that pushes on the linkage. The early 944s were really easy to fix if you had enough adjustment in the threaded plastic balljoint.

The later 944s/951s have a few shields in the way that require the window being all the way up and removing the bottom part of the window track on the back of the door. It is pretty easy after removing the door panel, just a few 8mm head screws and wiggling out the window track. There is one #3 phillips screw that holds the door handle on;it by the door jamb. I usually take to whole door handle off and clean it, adjust it, and lube it with white lithium grease. You have to be careful not to break any of the plastic ball-joints that hold the release rod and the lock rod while removing the door handle. I used a flat head screwdriver with caution. The door handle itself comes out very easy, after the screw and linkage are disconnected, just push the door handle sideways in the direction of the front of the car and it will release the back... and you should be able to figure it out from there on.

If you cannot get the door to pop open easily after adjusting the plastic ball-joint, some slight straightening of the release rod is needed. I highly recommend spraying white lithium grease on all of the door linkage while you have it apart, it makes things last longer and it does drip off over time like DW.

I have had the actual trigger of the handle break off when I had my early 944. I bought a door handle cheaply from a salvage yard from an old golf/rabbit and ravaged it for parts.

I hope I helped more than confused everyone.

Rip It

Thanks for the info, I hope to get this done over the holidays.