Hi All

I just bought a 96 f250 xlt 2wd and the inner door handle came off in my hand, I took off the door trim to fix the problem and as I was rolling the windows up and down I noticed that when the window went up the inner part of the door shell was moving about 1/2 to 1 inch to ward me is this common our is there something Im missing your help in this matter would be greatly appriciated, as I still have the door panel off. Thanks for any replies. Bill

 

That movement is normal. The problem with the inner door handles on later trucks is also well documented, somewhere around '91 or '92 Ford switched from a solid link/lever system to cable operated inner door handle, problem is the cables stretch and eventually you break the cable or the handle or both trying to open the door. I put '92 doors on my '90 a few years ago and one of the smartest things I did was keep all the linkages and handles from the old doors. Sure enough I started breaking handles last summer as the door got harder and harder to open(cable stretch), so I got pissed off one day and tore it all out and put the old solid links back in. To convert to the older system you need the door latch, the inner handle, and the levers(rods) that link the inner and outer handles to the latch. With all that it's in bolt-in swap and you will never have a door handle problem again.

 

Thanks for the info, the problem with the door handle was that the metal sheared and the whole assembly came off, I fixed that with fender washers and a bolt. I was just a little concerned about the movement in the inner door panel and thought that there was something broken that I should look at while the door trim was off

 

The problem with your "fix" is it didn't fix the problem. You put bubble gum on a flat tire. Like Conanski said, the cable has stretched, you with either brake the handle or rip the door(again)