Hello everyone. I have a 2001 e250 with the side barn door (not the slider). Not relevant, but it’s got the 5.4. The van has power door locks

anyway, some of my door handle cables are not working. Specifically the side door exterior and the rear door interior.

I know there’s cable end things that are made of plastic, which is generally where the door handle issues start. I ordered a box of replacements, and got one installed on the handle side of the cable, but for the life of me, I can’t the cable back into the door handle mechanism. (I am working on the side door)

as I was looking at it yesterday, I realized that all 4 of those plastic clips were broken. So the interior door handle cable, exterior door handle cable, and the door latch all need those clips replaced.

im pretty sure that means I need to remove the door latch mechanism right? I tried yesterday but all the rods from the lock kept it from coming out. I ended up putting it back together so I could do a little reading first

Does anybody know of a guide or a write up that can tell me how to do this? Seems like I need to drill out the rivet for the door lock motor. Either that or just disconnect the linkage to it or something.

thank you

and happy thanksgiving

 

What are those any picture or part number and where you got them from. What you ordered thus far is important.

Rear Interior below:







Please send picture the best you can.

On side door, you said you have power door lock, so how do you know it's not the problem with the actuator? When you unlock it with your remote does the **** goes up or not? Or the **** is up all the way but the door is stuck and you can't open it. Or when you use the key to unlock, the **** doesn't go up at all?

 

Thanks for the reply! Dorman part number 926-111

i am away from the van currently, but I’ll go mess with it this evening and get some pictures at that time

i I am pretty sure the door latch will need to be removed in order to get the cables out and reinstalled with the new ends (pictured). Hopefully I am wrong to think that, (I’ve been wrong several times in my life) but I don’t see any way to remove those cables any other way

All of the door handles, ALL OF THEM, feel like they are on the verge of failing. Something tells me I am about to get really good at fixing these !

for what it’s worth, after I posted this, I had the idea to adjust my google search for more relevant results. “Ford van door cable replacement” is showing me relevant results

 

For the side you should get the whole cable like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/392036075175 (more permanent fix then dorman replacing just the ends)
And to replace the cable you don't have to remove the latch, you have plenty of room to access it on the opening on the left side. If you remove the latch it may introduce another problem.
When you have power door lock there should be actuator underneath the latch, I want you to see when you push the unlock on the remote, can you see the actuator hook rod is pulling/pushing at all or not.
While doing all these grab a spray can of WD-40 Specialist Dry Lube if possible, you use this for lubrication.

Have a look at this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/224489853987 this is the left side of the side door but mechanism wise same on right door, so you can see where to hook the cable end back to the latch side, you can see you don't need to remove the latch.

 

Once again, thanks for replying! I am thankful for YOU today.

that is crazy the cables can be replaced without removing that door latch. I’ll have to mess with it again with the confidence of knowing that the latch can stay in. So thanks for setting me straight on that.

as far as ordering cables, that makes a lot of sense and I wish I had already ordered them. Unfortunately, I am really wanting to get this thing fixed ASAP. do you think it’s gonna be a complete waste of time to simply use the Dorman part I already have on hand? And as far as when I go around to the other doors, are you still recommending that I use whole new cables on those as well?

once again thanks for chatting with me, especially on thanksgiving. If it weren’t for my family, I’d be out there right now messing with it. So yeah I can’t stress this enough, thanks for the support

 

Yes replace the whole cable is the right approach for a permanent fix. When you replace only a dorman's metal ends you are still using the 20+ years old cable. Most importantly you don't have to worry about the length and its pulling force being too tight or too loose. Imagine if you have the latch and cable on the bench, I'm sure it takes only 2 seconds to attach it onto the latch.

 

I’m probably about to sound like a smartass, and I apologize because that’s not my intention, I just don’t know how to ask this without sounding that way…
you said “Imagine if you have the latch and cable on the bench”
I thought you said to leave it in the door in a previous reply?

thank you for taking the time to help me

 

My bad, I was just trying to say when doing it on the bench it takes 2 seconds, so when the latch stays intact, it still doesn't take 2 minutes to remove.
The dorman type above you can see a little slit (will eventually come loose by itself), that's how it stays on the latch. The whole cable type above with a double nut new design you turn to loosen the nuts to remove away from the latch. Your inner door has big enough opening on the left side you just need to remove the slit away from the latch, then the rod and the ball will come loose.

 

Get the complete cable. I used the dorman repair looking for a cheap fix....STUPID CHOICE! I have now replaced all of the door cables on my 2006 with complete cables. You can still find Ford/Motorcraft stock if you look hard enough.

 

Okay guys I’m starting to see how this thing goes together. For starters, in addition to the cable ends being broken, the exterior door handle was also broken. For what it’s worth, I plugged the repair cable end (without the cable) to show what exactly I was struggling with when I started this project. What happened to is that there is one cable end in each pack that is squarish in shape (I posted a picture to show that). Apparently that one doesn’t seem to fit in the exterior door handle.

does anybody know which cable that squarish piece is supposed to go on as well as the handle side or the latch side? I know both of you guys recommended against that solution, but I already bought these so I figure I may as well try them out. I successfully installed these on the interior door handle and it seems to be working great. I used the round cable ends on both sides of that cable, so I really can’t figure out where that squarish piece is supposed to go. Maybe that squarish piece is a big part of the reason you guys are recommending against these!






You said you don’t have to remove the latch, and granted I didn’t remove it. However, I did end up unbolting it. I also removed the plastic cap off of the interior manual door lock thing, to allow that rod more wiggle room as I moved the door latch down.

With the door latch loose, I was able to wiggle it down until I could see where the cables plug into it. Furthermore, this allowed me to use a small screwdriver to push the cable ends into their respective slots.

As indicated in a previous reply, moving that door latch does cause other problems. Namely, the power door lock motor as well as the rod from the key lock outside fall out of their spots where they connect to the door latch. but easy enough to pull them back into place when you go to reinstall the latch.