Suicide door 99 Ford Ranger XLT

[Tom_G]

Aloha all!
The driver's side suicide door has become temperamental. One of the grommets which secures the cable to the lower latch has eroded. Now, to open the door, I have to reach two fingers under the handle, press that grommet into place, and hold it while I pull the handle. It works, but is rather humbug. Looking around for spare parts, I can find the handle assembly, the latch assemble, the latch assembly with cable attached, but not just a cable or just a grommet. Any thoughts on an easy fix here? I was thinking about just applying a zip tie or tiny tiny hose clamp to the cable on the inside of the door, but I want something that'll last for another 20 years. I hate popping off interior panels, and tend to wreck them when I do, so I don't want to be revisiting my repaid in a few months when my band-aid slips out of place.
Mahalo!
Tom G

 

[Brain75]

Interior trim is actually not tooo bad if you take a regular old carpenters pry bar - one of these:

and cover the whole end in blue painters tape, just one layer - if the tape starts wearing down replace it immediately before you scratch up the panels.

As long as the pressure is spread out WIDER than the cheap plastic pry tools and the V bite of the tool is really tight on the plug it tends to pull em out clean. The exception being the brittle ones that are seated really well, well - then the head pops off and the x-mas fastener is ruined.

I spent a few minutes on partsgeek, rockauto, etc etc - nothing, I feel your pain... and being on the island you are even more limited... bonus, I found replacement x-mas tree fasteners on partsgeek 25 for $2. (search "interior panel retainer")

 

[JoshT]

What you are calling a grommet is really the hard plastic end or anchor on the cable sleeve, it gets brittle and crumbles over time. Both ends of the cable have the same thing, but in my experience the handle end seems to give it first.

It's actually a fairly common problem on Ford door cables, rangers, vans, f--series, all of them. It has happened on both back doors of my 99 Ranger, and on Dad's 2001 Ranger IIRC. It's also happened on both back doors of my F-250. Driver side broke and was fixed back when Dad had it. Passenger side has been broke for a few years, but haven't really needed it to open and it isn't quite as ready to open as the Ranger with broke cables.

Fortunately the aftermarket did devised a fix. They created replacement aluminum cable ends. You finish breaking the old plastic anchors of the cable, clean up the sleeve, and slip the new aluminum end into place. You will need to dill the rivets holding the handle to the door, and bolt or trivet them back on when finished. Be careful with the handles, there are clips on the back side that are supposed to retain the cable ends, thank the handle off and pull the clips, don't be dumb and try to force the cable ends through like I did the first time.

Google: Ranger door cable repair ends

Available from lots of sources as you can see. Search around and find the one that suits you best. IIRC, I got the from eBay many years ago. I think Dad got them through Amazon.

If you need a visual there should be several videos on YouTube that cover the process.

 

[Tom_G]

What you are calling a grommet is really the hard plastic end or anchor on the cable sleeve, it gets brittle and crumbles over time. Both ends of the cable have the same thing, but in my experience the handle end seems to give it first.

It's actually a fairly common problem on Ford door cables, rangers, vans, f--series, all of them. It has happened on both back doors of my 99 Ranger, and on Dad's 2001 Ranger IIRC. It's also happened on both back doors of my F-250. Driver side broke and was fixed back when Dad had it. Passenger side has been broke for a few years, but haven't really needed it to open and it isn't quite as ready to open as the Ranger with broke cables.

Fortunately the aftermarket did devised a fix. They created replacement aluminum cable ends. You finish breaking the old plastic anchors of the cable, clean up the sleeve, and slip the new aluminum end into place. You will need to dill the rivets holding the handle to the door, and bolt or trivet them back on when finished. Be careful with the handles, there are clips on the back side that are supposed to retain the cable ends, thank the handle off and pull the clips, don't be dumb and try to force the cable ends through like I did the first time.

Google: Ranger door cable repair ends

Available from lots of sources as you can see. Search around and find the one that suits you best. IIRC, I got the from eBay many years ago. I think Dad got them through Amazon.

If you need a visual there should be several videos on YouTube that cover the process.

Thanks for this! I ordered a pack of too many from Amazon for about $1 each. Next step, see if I can't find a rivet gun to borrow!

 

[Tom_G]

Ok, finally got around to doing this repair. I'd gotten pretty adept at opening the door, holding the cable in place with 2 fingers while working the release. The repair did require smaller fingers than mine for getting the cable ends back into the release handle, but thankfully my boo's hands were just right! I ended up replacing only the one end that had broken. The other end has been replaced previously, and I didn't see any reason to pull the panel and go after the latch ends. Until one of them fails next week, I suppose.

 

[KaHOnas]

Did you remove the handles? I've seen a few videos where they show that it's not necessary but it looks like a job for tiny hands. I've got a '98 with broken plastic cable ends. I'd prefer not to remove the handles if I can avoid it.

Also, all the metal cable end kits I've seen have 2 cable ends of a slightly different design (cammed end vs round). What's that all about?

 

[JoshT]

Did you remove the handles? I've seen a few videos where they show that it's not necessary but it looks like a job for tiny hands. I've got a '98 with broken plastic cable ends. I'd prefer not to remove the handles if I can avoid it.

Also, all the metal cable end kits I've seen have 2 cable ends of a slightly different design (cammed end vs round). What's that all about?

In my experience it's necessary. As mentioned above, I tried it without removing the handles, and it broke the handle.

Here's a picture of the back side of the handle. When removing and installing the cable you need to release those clips. If you try to force the cables back through you are likely to break the clips and/or the plastic holding the clips. That's exactly what happened on mine. I can't say that you won't get lucky and pop them back in without breaking, but if it breaks you've got to remove it to replace anyway and you're out time and money getting a new handle.


IIRC the cammed one is for the latch end of the cables. The handle end uses the round one.

 

[Tugg]

Did you remove the handles? I've seen a few videos where they show that it's not necessary but it looks like a job for tiny hands. I've got a '98 with broken plastic cable ends. I'd prefer not to remove the handles if I can avoid it.

Also, all the metal cable end kits I've seen have 2 cable ends of a slightly different design (cammed end vs round). What's that all about?

the odd looking ones are for the top latches