Changed rear exterior door handle - now door won’t open

Hi everyone,

Quick question: I successfully removed my door panel, unscrewed the lock cylinder to slide it down to access the torx screw for the end-piece of the exterior door handle (along with the torx screw for the other end of the handle), and swapped handles.

I returned the lock cylinder to its correct position, screwed it back in place- but now when I pull open the exterior handle, it doesn’t pull the actual cable to open the door.

I can see a blue plastic lever move (inside the door), and can feel the exterior handle moving the mechanism in the door, but it’s as though the mechanism isn’t connecting to the lock cylinder.

I can pull the actual cable (the one that connects to the interior handle) and feel the interior mechanism moving on the “inside” handle/door lock side, but there is no connection to the mechanism for the exterior handle… what am I missing?

i hope I am explaining myself clearly… I basically reassembled everything step by step, but pulling the exterior door handle does nothing. I’ve tried to find a microfiche of image of the correct assembly to see what isn’t “connecting” but haven’t been successful.

It is my rear driver’s side door handle.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

TIA

 

https://autoparts.toyota.com/products/product/panel-assy-rr-door-6764004100c4

Not sure what you’re actually working through but I would suggest exploring the parts explosion to see if it helps you see what else is going on inside there.

Were you having trouble opening it from the interior only or from outside too?

Did you somehow lock the child lock by accident?

 

I've worked on my door latches, locks and linkage about 5 times. So many little things to go wrong

You are going to have to look closely at the linkage and handles with a strong light.
Was the new door handle exactly like the old?
Maybe a clip got disconnected accidentally
Sounds like the you only worked on the Driver side. You can look at the passenger side to see if everything looks, the same, in reverse.

 

Thank you so much for your responses.

I guess I didn’t explain myself correctly… the exterior handle was replaced with a genuine toyota handle. I can open from the inside handle just fine, (those cables for the lock and interior door handle work fine) it’s the exterior handle that isn’t connecting to the mechanism.

Any blow out diagrams I find don’t show the actual mechanisms and how they connect/work with each other behind/between the actual steel door panel. I’ll throw a camera in to see what isn’t connecting and see what I can find.

I was trying to avoid opening up the passenger rear door to compare

The video posted above is exactly what I followed, but once reassembled in reverse, i can’t open the door with my exterior door handle- the interior handle works just fine with the cables reconnected.

 

I had this happen on my passenger side front only you couldn’t open it from the inside. The latch cable has a slot that it slides into and if it pops out you can pull on it and nothing happens. Remember it’s always something simple .

 

I had a similar problem with my Access Cab, when I put the panel back on I was not successful in aligning something up and pinched a mechanism. Test while you have the panel off to see if it works, it is also much easier to see how something works when you can indeed see it.