Swinging door handle disconnected

[tyreman]

(1982 MC9) Well the door handle that opens and closes the front door apparently just came lose as I was attempting to close door this weekend. How do you get underneath the dash to investigate what came off? I noticed it was operating intermittently weird, not latching closed securely once or twice but nothing consistent. Then right before it let go it made a strange noise and wouldn't close completely then heard something fall behind dash. Now door is completely free floating and needs to be secured by the dead bolt to keep closed ...heavy sigh...    

[buswarrior]

Remove all the panels on the vertical surfaces of the dash front, and the covering over the door arm/hinge.

If you're lucky, one of the bolts/pins has dropped out of the linkage.

Some of the covers over the defroster motors and duct work can be removed...

A mirror and a flashlight are important tools for searching for the bits that dropped down "behind there".

Be very careful that your fingers don't get crushed while working on this. An assistant or the wind moves the door at the wrong time and you loose a finger.

Happy coaching!
Buswarrior

[tyreman]

Thanks for the reply, I was hoping for something a little less intrusive but this thing isn't a F100 pick-up. And I just had to have a coach!   

[edvanland]

Welcome to the world of Lord what have I got myself into. Love it, good luck

[tyreman]

Well it's a Christmas miracle, I took the middle panel out with the two snap screws, vacuumed the debris of 36 years out and found all the hardware except one thin washer (that I believe wasn't there to begin with and caused it to back off) after looking at it several minutes I figured how to reassemble it. It did have a spring of some type that was laying there broken too but I couldn't see where it should reattach and it doesn't seem to affect the operation as the door acts like it did before.