How do you get the outside door handle off of a 1998 ford explorer

Steps:

Before you begin, you'll want to just barely crack the window open, maybe about an inch or so. For me, with the window all the way up, the bracket that the window lies on interferes with the removal and installation of the door handle. You'll likely need to move the window up and down a few times (I did).

The first part is to remove the door panel. It's held in by the two screws just above the inside door handle, and about 8 of the plastic anchors. I won't go into great detail on this, since it's covered in a few places, and isn't terribly difficult.

Once you have the door panel off, you'll want to remove the one bolt which holds in the "outer" window tract and move it out of the way. Before you do this, there is a plastic anchor similar to the ones that hold the door panel inserted into a hole in this bracket that needs to be pushed out from the back. This anchor holds a wiring connector in place. After this is pushed out, remove the bolt with an 11mm socket. Lay the window tract in the bottom of the door. With it still intact, you won't be able to see, or really work with the rod that connects the door handle to the door latch mechanism.

With this out of the way, you'll be able to see where the linkage between the door handle and the latch mechanism meet. You'll want to detach the linkage from the latch mechanism by "unclipping" the yellow fastener that holds them together. You'll want to pull the tab on the fastener toward you. Once it's open, be sure to mark the linkage with a permanent marker indicating where it rests in the fastener. Pull the linkage out of this yellow fastener.

Now you'll be able to rotate the linkage so that it "unhooks" from the door handle.

Now, with that linkage disconnected, you'll need to drill out the rivets which fasten the door handle to the door. You can do this by holding the door handle up, and drilling from outside.

Once you've drilled out the front side, you may need to get into the inside of the door, and "finish off" the rivets from the back. The way these are designed, the rivet pulls into a sleeve, and on the inside of the door, it looks like a banana peel. You may need to bend, or cut off the banana peel parts in order to pull the rivets out from the front side of the door.

Once the rivets are out completely, you should be able to pull the whole door handle assembly upward, then rotate the bottom of the assembly upward, and pull the handle out.

You're half way there! The door handle is out!


Now just reverse that motion with the new door handle to put it in place. You can safely rivet, or bolt the new one in place now. I've heard of many people using bolts, but I chose to replace it with rivets. I had a 1/8 x 5/8 steel rivets, which were deep enough, but the head was too small, so I used two SAE #6 washers to make up the difference. You'll probably need someone to help you hold the inside washer, if you go that route. I'm sure there are rivets that are the right size, but I had to use what I had on hand.


Now re-attach the linkage to the door handle, and then to the latch mechanism. I'd test to make sure the door handle works at this point. If it does, you can proceed with assembling the rest of the door.

Replace the window tract and the bolt you removed at the beginning. Re-stick the door liner to the door, and replace the door panel.

Park about two feet off the curb and open your door quickly in traffic.