How to reverse TJ door handles

thomat65

TJ Enthusiast
Supporting Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2019
Messages
351
Location
Southwest MI
Inspired by 1999 TJ Reverse Door Handles

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Required tools and parts:
Estimated time: ten times longer than everyone says.

Disassemble door​

Take your door off and set it somewhere handy. Remove 5x Torx screws:
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Remove the window crank. It's held on by this clip:
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They say there's a tool for this that only costs $5. But I prefer to be frustrated so I just used whatever I could wedge in there and fought with it for a while until it popped out. As it pops out the clip is designed to go flying either out of sight or into your eye.

Pop the inner panel loose. It's held on by six plastic clips in these locations:
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They look like this:
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Don't worry about breaking them. You're guaranteed to break at least one so you're going to have to buy the replacement clips anyway. And the ones that don't break probably aren't going to snap back into place very well at the end of this job.

Once the clips have broken loose you'll notice the panel sort of hinges on the bottom of the window:
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Slide it up:
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Then slide it over away from the mirror:
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And it should come right off after that.

Peel back the plastic (after removing the metal frame that the grab handle was attached to):
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Remove outer handle​

Now remove the outer handle. This part is kind of tricky. If you peek inside your door you'll notice the outer handle is held on by two keys (one on either side) that look like this:
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The keys are wedged down and held in place by the little springs/clips. Here they are in situ:
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You'll want to bend the spring/clips out of the way so that they don't engage the keys any longer. But be careful. Someone said they broke theirs and it was a pain to hack a repair. You get better access by rolling the window up.

Then you'll want to tap the keys gently to remove them. Getting them out once they're loose is kind of like playing Tetris in a tight space while blindfolded, so be patient.

Remove the rod​

Next, remove this spring clip which secures the rod to the handle mechanism:
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Remove these two screws. There is a piece of tape and some gooey gunk covering them. These screws hold that rod in place:
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The one screw doesn't need to be removed completely because there's a slot:
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Remove the rod from this snap/clip thing. It pops out when you pull the rod in the direction of the springy portion of that clip:
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Here's the rod:
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Repeat for the other door​

Do everything over again on the other door. Marvel at how much quicker you're able to do it.

Bend and test fit the rod​

You're going to be swapping outer door handles and also the rods. You have to swap the outer door handles because the handles are supposed to push down on the rod. If you just rotate the handles in place 180 degrees then it will pull up on the rod and won't work. And if you swap the rods as well then you don't have to do as much bending.

Bend the rod so that it's basically parallel:
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You'll also want to take some of the angle out of the smaller section (shown at the top of the below picture). This will make more sense when you test fit it.
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Test fit the rods. Keep bending until you're happy with how they fit. Remember that the driver's side rod is going into your passenger side door and vice versa.

Reassemble​

If you want to fix your cracked door panel or powder coat your handles then now is a great time to check those things off the list.

I added some dry lube to my handles so they're smoother.

Once you're ready then put everything together in reverse order.

The keys that wedge the outer handles in place are even harder to reassemble than they were to take apart. I found that an Allen wrench would get around the window and allowed me to tap the keys home with a hammer.
 
Last edited:
@Chris I'm unable to remove the two pictures under the last section titled "Reassemble". I didn't put them there and when I delete them they come right back. I even edited the BB code... no dice. Any ideas?
 
@Chris I'm unable to remove the two pictures under the last section titled "Reassemble". I didn't put them there and when I delete them they come right back. I even edited the BB code... no dice. Any ideas?

If you go in to edit the post and look underneath, there's thumbnails for all the photos you attached. If those two images show up twice, just delete both instances of each picture, re-attach it and put it back in line with the post where it's supposed to be. If that doesn't do it, I can't help.

Very nice write-up. I did this on my TJ last year and because of some of the frustrations you described, I haven't gathered the motivation to do it again despite how much I enjoyed them being reversed.

I did not swap the rods on mine, that sounds like good advice because I had issues getting the bend just right on my passenger side for the rod not to bind (that door handle was also missing a spring so didn't have as much force to lift the rod as it should have). Eventually it bound up and prevented me from being able to unlock the door, and I had to remove the door panel with the door closed, which not only broke a bunch of plastic clips but also broke some of the plastic tabs that the clips mount to.
 
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Iffen any of ya'll handle monkeys decide to purchase new ones with the Mopar brand and made in Canada, pay close attention to the little bent brackets for the retaining slide pins. One of ours has them spot welded in the wrong spot too far away from the door and the slide pins just fall right through. We were able to cut a piece of a cotter pin and space the little spring retainer out some and make it work.
 
@Chris I'm unable to remove the two pictures under the last section titled "Reassemble". I didn't put them there and when I delete them they come right back. I even edited the BB code... no dice. Any ideas?

This is a fantastic write-up, thanks for doing this!

It appears that the issue is you uploaded several pictures more than once which was causing this issue. I went in and deleted the ones you uploaded more than once, but I may have accidentally done more harm than good. You'll want to go through the photos again and make sure I didn't accidentally delete anything I shouldn't have.
 
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If you go in to edit the post and look underneath, there's thumbnails for all the photos you attached. If those two images show up twice, just delete both instances of each picture, re-attach it and put it back in line with the post where it's supposed to be.
Ahh, thanks. I'll look for that next time so that Chris doesn't have to fix it for me.

This is a fantastic write-up, thanks for doing this!
My pleasure!

It appears that the issue is you uploaded several pictures more than once which was causing this issue. I went in and deleted the ones you uploaded more than once, but I may have accidentally done more harm than good. You'll want to go through the photos again and make sure I didn't accidentally delete anything I shouldn't have.
Thank you. That did the trick.