Hi! The driver's side door handle has quit opening the door. I can open it just fine from the inside, lock is fine, etc. The actuator is doing its thing, the window is fine.

I couldn't find any parts schematic online showing the assembly. So I took off the door panel and found a metal bar with a broken piece of black plastic on it. I can't figure out where it is supposed to be attached or how it is supposed to be attached. Makes it hard to buy parts when I refer to "thingies" so if you can advise me what I'm seeing and what I need to get it back to working, I'd appreciate the help!

Thanks,

Kathy

 

take the other side apart and compare them two figure out how to fix the other side you do have two doors right

 

that metal bar attaches the lever of the door handle to the door latch. When you pull up on the door handle, it pushes down on that bar which works the latch. that plastic clip is what is supposed to hold the bar on the handle. my advise is to look for another handle at a junk yard, cause the handle is the only thing broken, or if you find out where the bar attaches, take a wire tie and see if you can hold the bar into the handle's lever arm with it. as for where the bar attaches, unless it got bent, theres only one part of the handle it attaches, so i'd suggest taking the passenger side door panel off and looking at it.

 

this just happened to me, and I found out where its supposed to attach to, but you can't get to it without removing the window... DAMNIT

 

I think the plastic keeper broke and the rod slipped out of where it is supposed to go. Compare to other side and goat rope a way to keep it in. good luck to find the plastic keeper....

 

This just happened to my dad's 95 Dakota today. This is my first time even trying to work on a Dakota so I don't know much but I got the door panel off and it's broken just like yours. How do you get the exterior door handle off? If there is a DIY on it? f so could someone give me the link to it. New to this forum and don't know how to get around it yet.

 

well... the plastic keeper was definitely broke and even if I did find it, was NOT going to work

you can't get to the actual latch on the door handle to zip tie or whatever you want to do without removing the window. I didnt want to get THAT crazy.

I tried the door without doing any goat roping and it would work for a couple times, and eventually would fall out.

So instead of removing the window, I drilled a hole a little further down FORWARD of the rod, and then zip tied... here are some pics

 

You can buy the clips in most autopart stores in the help section. They are color coded. Maybe for 1 or 2 $3-5.

 

ill have to try and find some. Even then though, you cant really get to the rod/handle part without removing the entire window

 

No access with the window up or down? Can't tell from your pix.