Outer door handle / latch replacement

[Brian O]

06 LJ with full doors.

My passenger side door latch popped and no longer works. It's been cold here and it was difficult to open. Seems common enough and research says it's a pain to fix. Some have had success removing the glass which i'd rather not do. I ordered the latch and some plastic clips just in case. Has anyone ever cut a hole into their door to gain better access or is that a stupid idea? No google results were found. Thanks much!

 

[Nathan Stanfield]

I just replaced my driver side handle last week for the same reason.
It’s not that hard to do without having to remove the glass or cut anything.
I pulled the door off and did the whole thing on the dining room table with a long screwdriver and some long pliers.
Unless you have giant hands. That might make it a little difficult.

 

[RussTJ]

It’s not that hard to do and I don’t believe that you need any special tools. You need to take off the interior panel to get access. I replaced mine in the fall of 2017. It’s just one of those jobs that fights you a bit. I’m sure there are some YouTube videos to guide you through.

 

[TJ4Jim]

For what it's worth removing the glass is not a big deal and does make it a bit easier to deal with. Replacement can be done either way.

 

[Brian O]

I just replaced my driver side handle last week for the same reason.
It’s not that hard to do without having to remove the glass or cut anything.
I pulled the door off and did the whole thing on the dining room table with a long screwdriver and some long pliers.
Unless you have giant hands. That might make it a little difficult.

Thanks man. I didn't even think to just remove the door and bring it in. Sounds like a good option.

 

[BugoutJeep]

I unhooked the glass and rotated it 90 deg out of the way (4 screws), just bent the old spring retainer part and pulled the wedges free and the little linkage pin out. I couldn't find my long needle nose pliers, so I couldn't get it with the glass installed, well I'm sure I could but unhooking the glass was easy.

I might add that I've removed this trim once a year for the last few years because in the cold my worn out springs were useless and wouldn't lock, unlock, latch and unlatch properly. And doing that in the snow the last couple of times, I knew I was just being an idiot. Also the doors rattle all the time.

I'm gonna do the driver's side tonight I think. Shouldn't take more than about 30 minutes now that I know what to do.