Door Handle Adjustment

A common problem on Range Rover Classics and some Discovery 1's is the door latch release not working quite right. If you pull on the door release and it doesn't open the door you have this problem. The maze of levers and rods to open a door is amazing. There are lots of things to go wrong as well. From the plastic bits failing to the rods getting stretched after decades of tugs and pulls door often will not open when desired.

So with a little internet research and looking at the Repair Manual I set out to repair my door pull. On the internet I found this post by 57loboy

"With respect to the door handle, you need to pull the interior door panel off and adjust the rod that connects the handle to the latch mechanism. Over time, they stretch and do exactly what you describe."

After my response he describes the exact thing that allows the adjustment

How exactly do you "adjust" the rod? I've looked at the setup and didn't see anything that looked even remotely adjustable.

There's a threaded adjustment near the exterior handle...

So it was off to the Range Rover to get in there and get it fixed. Now, I've looked at this before and I've had it apart to attempt to repair this problem and I never found the nut he described. And after finding it, it wasn't a big surprise why I never got it fixed before. The nut is a tiny 7mm nut. Coincidentally that just happened to be the smallest wrench I owned.

I tried to capture a photo of the rod but it was a very tight spot and very difficult to shoot. I got the one shot and flipped over so you are looking up into the door from the bottom. The only real way to find the end and get the wrench on is by feeling with your hands.

With a few turns of the screw, and then a couple more for good measure the door works perfectly once again.

On the Difficulty Scale this project was a 1. Maybe a 1.5 considering you have to work only with your hands and an abstract idea of what the parts "look like" in your head.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.