Broken manual lock switch fix

[twithers]

I was looking into why the interior door lock/unlock manual slide doesn't work and found that everything inside the door was good with one exception. The rod end that goes into the back of the manual switch is slipping out of it's hole because the retainer clip that is built into the back of the manual interior switch and is used to retain the rod end in the socket on the back of the switch, is completely gone, so with any effort put on the interior switch the rod end just freely pops out of it's socket.

As best as I can tell, the only way to fix it is to buzz off all the rivets that hold that entire plastic panel and replace it.

Has anyone come up with any sort of fix without having to remove that plastic panel?

 

[wally]

My 95 short box has a nasty habit of eating door handles you will have to drill out the rivets . The handle / lock assembly will slide to the left a little (drivers side) then it will pull off . The retaining clip just needs to be replaced. Getting the door panel off is the hard part and if you've done that your 80 percent there