Hi,

The power door locks on the back doors of my 1995 F350 are in need of some maintenance. About a year ago, they worked, but very sluggishly. As time went by, it became necessary to manually lock and unlock the doors, as the power locks no longer had the force required to make the locks work. Also, as time went by, the force required to move the door lock ***** up and down, became considerably more and more. As a short term fix, I put a #10-32 thread into a piece of 5/16" roundstock, and made an extra long door lock **** that is easy to grip.

Now for my question: How does the door inner panel come off?

I found information that said to remove the one screw (located at the arrow end of "A" in the attached picture), and then to simply push the entire door panel upward. I tried this, and it did not work. The truck is in an unheated garage, and it is quite cold, so I did not push any harder than I considered to be reasonable. I did not want to break any of the plastic pieces.

I found another source of information, that said to pry up the edges of the panel, and then to continue around the perimeter of the panel, until the panel was removed. I tried to pull out on the panel, but again, I was concerned that the effort was more than what was safe to apply in the coldness.

A picture is attached, of the door panel. Any help would be appreciated!

Thank you,
Greg

 

Take out the screw, labeled A. My '96 also has several trim screws around the bottom of the door and one in a recess well just below the vent window. They're all small phillips heads, and are visible if you look for them. I can see them in the carpet in your photo. EDIT: just noticed you're working on a rear door. Obviously no mirror screw on that.

Next you will have to pry out the edges of door panel. It uses little tree-shaped push-in fasteners. Buying a set of plastic trim pry bars at any local auto parts store will make this much easier and safer for your plastic, but it can be done with a flat screwdriver if you're careful. DO be careful and warm up the door panel first if you can. Old plastic is brittle, and cold makes it worse. It does take a fair amount of force.

Once all the edges are loose, you will have to pull the door handle like you'r opening the door and then lift the door panel straight up to lift the top edge with the window seals straight up out of the door. You will also need to reach behind the panel and unplug the wire harness from the back of the switches in the door.

The little push in fasteners may break but they can be had at any parts store for not much money. Focus on not breaking the panel itself.

 

Thank you for your help!

I am anxious to check it out tonight.

 

Good luck. Also, forgot to mention, there's a wiring connection to the light bulb in the bottom corner too. It's usually easiest to turn the bulb and pull it out of the lens rather than unsnap the wiring.

 

Somehow, when looking at the truck over the weekend, in a cold and somewhat dark garage, I missed the screws that were in the carpet.

It now is even colder. Supposed to get to 5F tonight. I am going to hold off on manipulating the plastic panel until it gets a bit warmer. That is OK though, as I really should buy the nylon trim prybars. I saw a set listed in the Harbor Freight online catalog. Will check them out.

Thanks again for the help!