For one to fully appreciate the whole experience, the wheelchair lift in my van from day one I learned, it likes to kill batteries, so I put a cutout on the power cable, it is by the rear battery inside the back door, now to open the door, one has to crawl over the rear seat to get at the inside handle, so much for me using my van, WTF is wrong with Ford, from the front seatbelt cables that break every few years to these stupid cable operated latches, designed to fail. Now I have ordered the aluminum ends so I can repair this mess, get to jump on that after I finish drilling and taping the lift where it sheared a bolt on it's lift arm, seems I can't get that POS replaced, I haven't the money for a new lift, nor have a dealer install a used one, because they will install all the government mandated 'safety' switches that are designed to fail rendering the vehicle useless. What happened to using metal rods for the doors, worked years ago, my 73 doors work great. Yeah, really enjoying the fact I can't hit the kill switch on my lift now, the rear battery will likely be dead tomorrow, left it active so I can tap the lift, mad enough now I'm about to bust out the license plate holder to get access to the latch!

 

BTDT. I can tell you that it's a good probability that the inside cable is on borrowed time as well. If that one gives out you'll have real fun making this repair.

 

When the kit comes in I plan on doing both back doors, really stupid design on Fords part, but its what I've come to expect. I told dad year before last that I should buy the kit and do the rear door as it's required to get entry, he didn't want to deal with it, much better to wait till it's a complete inconvenience, trips to doctors appt, everything breaking after my surgery, things that could have been prevented. I'm hoping I can get at the cables, that they aren't much trouble to reach, if my 73 had a passenger seat I'd be ready to sell this thing.

 

Those cable repair ends all over ebay, that cost next to nothing, work well. The cables on my van looked like new and it's a 93. Just the plastic ends crumble. It's really not that bad of a job. The main thing about using those replacement ends is that you need to shave down the cable housing before trying to slide them on, I just hit them with my bench grinder a little.

 

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/2...nt-open-3.html

 

I fear cutting myself trying to remove whats left of the ends, I had watched some videos in the past, I have a dremel to work them down.

 

Those ends will just crumble apart, I just used some cutters that are used for electronics wiring: https://www.alliedelec.com/product/g...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

You think so, I figured just the end separated, the rest would cling to it, if it crumbled it'd be far too easy, that ain't how it works around here, usually things are really complicated. I guess I'll do both cables on the door, inside and outside handle, was hoping to do the other one too but if they are that bad I fear I'll break the inside handle cable trying to get the outside.

 

Definitely do the inside handle while you're at it. You'll be right there and won't take that much more effort. If you decide to do the other door on the top latch you'll need a replacement end with a "cam style" otherwise you won't be able to get the cable end on the latch without bending the tab that'll be in the way. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Door-Latch-...YAAOSwkkNbFe8B

 

So does the drivers side rear run all the way up the door?

 

Yep. It goes all the way up and good luck if you cut the cable finding a new one. Be very careful with the dremel. I nicked my cable and of course it broke after the first few times using the handle.

 

On the left side there's an upper and lower latch so there's a seperate cable for each. In all cases you need to completely remove the latches to install the cables. But some have said they've managed to do the right door without removing the latch. If you do both doors you'll need 8 ends. Two with the cam style.

 

OK I finally was able to get at it, have to wait for help, van's been out of order for me since the lift has been disabled, unable to open the door from outside. I removed the license plate/door handle piece from the door, then the inside handle, the latch was tons of fun, the power door lock switch is held in quite well, not sure which I hated more, removing it or reinstalling. All the cables were broken, the real reason for it not working, Ford has the outside handle, the cable makes a U-turn, exerting unnecessary stress on the mount, built to fail, poor design, I wasn't able to replace all ends, the kit is 3 standard, one cam so I just did 3, the inside handle didn't need both ends replaced, the other worked fine even tho it was busted, it's never used anyway, it's tough to get to. I didn't need a dremel, a squeeze with lineman pliers and they crumbled away, boy do the aluminum ends fit tight, took some twisting and forcing to push it down, I had issues with my license plate light, kept coming out while trying to get it installed in the door, I thing it's wallowed out, have no idea how, needed to pull the speaker from the door to get the light back in, wish I could replace all that, afraid it's gonna come out again. BTW I had issues with the outside door cable staying in, I ended up having to put a ziptie on the end, there just isn't enough on that tab to hold it in, I don't see what the plastic was holding onto. Now I am happy my side doors have a power conversion on them, I'll never have to bother with this nonsense on them, the situation they are in, they'd have had to been cut loose from outside, the lift blocks all access, so has anyone had issues with their front doors? I kind of wonder if I should have put some form of lubricant on the cable, everything works fine, it just looks as if the cable feeds back slow.

 

Knock on wood, never had problems with front doors.

 

I didn't know if I should get ready to do them or not.