How to Replace Interior Door Handle 1991-2001 Ford Explorer

Brought to you by 1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet. Hi, I'm Mike Green. I'm one of the owners of 1A Auto. I want to help you save time and money repairing and maintaining your vehicle. I'm going to use my 20 plus years' experience restoring and repairing cars and trucks like this to show you the correct way to install parts from 1AAuto.com. The right parts installed correctly. That's going to save you time and money. Thank you and enjoy the video.

In this video we'll be replacing the inside door handle, the driver's side front, on this '98 Explorer. Pretty much the same as any '91 to '01 Explorer. Getting the door panel off on the '91 to '94 might be a little different. Only tools you'll need are regular screwdriver, Phillips screwdriver, and a putty knife and a rag to protect your paint. Okay, you want to start. Use your flat plate screwdriver, carefully pry in back here and you can see mine is already broken, but you want to be careful not to break it - right there it's kind of a weak spot. But even if do you break it, you can put it back together so it doesn't, you know people don't notice it. Pull that bezel apart. Got it off, okay. Two Phillips screws under here. Remove those Phillips screws. Back here with your screwdriver. If you want, use your rag. Pry this off. Pull it out. Okay, use your screwdriver.

This side here that has a tooth holding the harness. Just work the screwdriver under there a little bit and disconnect it. Now around the perimeter of the door panel there are some pins that hold it. So what you want to do is if you're worried about your paint, with the putty knife, wrap a towel around it. Work it in. Slide it down until you come to a stop and it's usually a pin. Pull it down further. Okay, this truck has been apart a few times, so it comes out apart easy. Once you have those pins released, then you'll want to lift up on the panel. It's in a grove here. Now in behind here, what you want to do, is this is held in. You basically want to ... there are two teeth, one there and then one back here. You press them down to release them then it slides out. On this one, press it down and then that whole assembly slides right out. Work that through and there's your door panel off. Now with your door panel off, take your door panel and you want to pull this back like that and then this handle has Phillips screws holding it. I'm not sure that there are exactly where they are supposed to be. Here, and on here.

Once you remove those screws and the handle slides forward, and when you look in behind you'll see that green clip that you'll want to pull off the rod. It comes up off the rod and then you can proceed as I show you. It comes off like that. Because on top here you can see it's all the same, it's got this nice gasket here that going to cut wind noise and wind coming in. Then you can see on the back, what commonly happens, is this is kind of a little ratchet mechanism that has teeth. The original one, you can look right in there you can see that the tooth's are broken, so when you move it nothing happens with that. So on the new one, obviously it now works correctly. So before we install, what you want to do just to make sure that this is moving correctly as it should be. So my new handle goes in on, just like I took it off and that clip goes right on top.

So now that's how it should look with that clip on top of it. So now I'm going to put the handle in. Slide it backwards, make sure everything is correct here. I'm going to tap my fist on the screwdriver. Put that back just about into place, a little firm. A little more firm. I put the screws back in. Now put this back up and it will stick on the door, it'll stick on. I'll put the door panel back on. I'm going to speed through putting the door panel back on. If you want see this in real time, just check out our other videos for door panel removal and installation on the Explorer and once you got the door panel back on you should be all set. Now you can get out of your car from the inside without rolling down the window.

We hope this helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet. Please feel free to call us at toll free 800-844-3393. We're the company that's here for you on the Internet and in person.