How to Replace Tailgate Handle 1999-2006 Chevy Silverado

First things you're gonna wanna do is make sure that your tailgate is down. Once you have it open and down, you're gonna see these three bolts right there. Remove those using a 13-millimeter socket. It's nice and tight. All right. Let's get these out of here. Wiggle this handle around, so it's nice and free. With this black bezel, the next thing you're gonna wanna have is one of these nice plastic trim tools. The reason why we're gonna use plastic is because we're gonna come in between the bed and the plastic shroud right here. Just go ahead and come right here. Push it. Do the same thing right there. Once you have the top broken free, just go ahead and lift this straight up and draw it away.

Go ahead and come in between here with a nice flathead screwdriver. Pull that clip down. Grab this rod, and slide it out. Do the same to the other side. Let's go ahead and get the handle out of here. Let's go ahead and get this handle in here. Weasel it in. There we are. Now, you're gonna grab your connecting rods here. Slide it in, and then lock it down. Slide it in. Bring this around. Lock it in. Give it a nice shake. Do the same to the other side.

So, now with this nice and loose, we can continue on to installing this. If you were to pay attention, on the backside, you're gonna see that you have a couple little pitons. And then, right here, you have some hooky-dos. When you go to install this, you're gonna put the bottom in first, so that the pitons go down into here. They'll latch in, and then just roll it in, and it'll latch. Just like this. In.

So, now from inside the bed, you can see the backside of the tailgate. We're just gonna kinda wiggle the handle around until we can see our bolt holes. Grab your bolts. Go ahead and start all three of them in before you tighten any of them down. Let's go ahead and snug them up. Let's give it a test. Perfect.