Door Handle and Door Pin Replacement

[Ginger]

Changing EXTERNAL door handles on an OBS (98) Suburban.

Start with removal of the interior door trim and panel.

Firmly pull the triangle piece (plastic piece covering the back of the mirror mounting screws) until it releases. It’s very tight and requires quite a bit of force.
Once released a little it can be slid up and off.

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Remove the two Phillips head screws located in the armrest.

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Remove the switch panel/speaker by lifting the rear section straight up until the clips are free. Slide the switch panel backward until the front tab is clear and remove the panel and disconnect the plugs going to the speaker and switches.

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Remove the door handle bezel.
Use a small screwdriver to put pressure on the bezel as you slide a bigger, flat bladed screwdriver between the bezel and handle assembly at the three points shown in the pictures.

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After the three clips have ‘popped’ releasing the rear section of the bezel, gently push the bezel forward to release the front clip/tab.

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Work your fingers under one corner of the door trim and pull firmly.
Keep working your way around pulling in the area’s where you can feel the trim is fixed to the door. Get as close to the fixing plugs as possible and pull HARD! It will make a horrendous noise and you'll think you've ruined it...this is normal!
You may break a couple of fixing plugs in this process so it’s advisable to buy some spares before undertaking this process.

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Once all of the fixing plugs have been released, the door trim can be lifted up and away from the door. The top of the trim hooks down over the top of the door between the top of the door and the window glass.

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Peel back the plastic covering the inside door skin.

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Remove the two screws securing the handle to the door. One located in the door jamb and the other located through the hole in the inner skin.

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Remove the three ‘torx’ head screws located in the door jamb holding the door latch mechanism to the door (not necessary for the back door handle...this step allows the easy disconnection and clearance of the key barrel).

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Pull the bottom of the outer door handle outwards and using a small screwdriver, push the key barrel tab up to allow the bottom of the handle to lift completely outwards.

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To be continued...

 

[Ginger]

Push the outside handle downwards until the door latch rod connecting tab clears the hole and the whole handle can be pulled forward from the hole. (you may have to maneuver it a little).

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Disconnect the key barrel rod by levering the tab on the retaining clip outwards and sliding the clip up.
Re-assemble in reverse order.

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Make sure the red, plasti-coated rod tip is inserted into the hole in the latch mechanism. This operates the latch from the exterior handle.

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[Ginger]

Door Hinge Replacement

Here we go again guys. As is apparently pretty common with obs style trucks my doors were starting to sag. The passenger side was in the worse shape of the two. I really had to slam it to get it to close. As well as the hinge bushings being shot my rollers that the door springs ride on were getting rough as well. When shutting the door from being all the way open i would get a nice little pop as that roller would move. I visited ckresto.com and ordered 2 88-98 door hinge rollers (Item #: CTP-23204A) for $22 a piece, an 88-98 door pin and bushing kit (Item #: CTP-BP5-K) for $21 that did both doors, and then 2 88-98 Door Strikers (Item #: CTP-22008B) for $5 a piece.

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X2

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X1

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For this job i would recommend having a buddy on hand. Without some sort of door holding jig i would definitely say this is a two man job. I had my father on hand to help out for this one.

So here is what we are starting with.

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Pull out the door spring compressor. I was only able to find this guy at napa. Part #770-3818. I payed $20.

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Put it on your spring as wide as you can squeeze it up there and tighten it up compressing the spring.

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Heres how you look without the spring.

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I went ahead then and removed the kick panel to fish out the wires for the power locks, windows, and speaker.

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There are three plugs per side. I would assume one for the windows, one for the locks, and then one for the factory speaker wires.

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Now we can go ahead and start thinking about getting those old pins out to remove the door. The pins have these little retaining rings on their ends. I guess these serve to stop the pins from backing out. I bent the rings up to get them out of the grooves on the pins.

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I didn't get pictures because it happened pretty quick but then i just took a pair of channel locks and put one jaw on the end of the pin and the other on the hinge and squeezed the pin out. It takes a bit of force because the other end of the pins are basically press fit into the hinges. They should pop free. At this point have your buddy ready to hold up the door. We used a little stool under the edge of the door to take most of the weight.

Before you go and rip the door out though it would be a good idea to pull the wires you disconnected earlier out through the body and pull loose the rubber loom so nothing gets hooked.

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[Ginger]

So now what? Well for me it was time to get the old roller assembly out of there for replacement. The ***** of this is that the factory basically inserts the roller into the hinge holes and then mushrooms the head to keep it in place. I ended up taking a dremel tool to the head with a cut-off wheel to eat it up enough to drive on through.

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Then i drove it out towards the ground with a punch and hammer.

You'll also notice i taped up the area before i went to work with the dremel. In case i got a little wild this would provide me some buffer between the paint.
Now to insert the new door roller. This was tricky. The first attempt was a no go. I guess the ckresto part had a slightly larger diameter than the factory pin because it would not go no matter how much the hammer was used. I pulled out the dremel again with a sanding drum and enlarged and cleaned out the hole just a little bit. Then at the advice of my father i put the roller in the freezer for 30 minutes thinking it would shrink a little and go in easier. I really think it helped.

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When i felt the hole was large enough i ran in and grabbed the now cold roller and slipped it up in their quickly and hammer it home. Worked like a charm.

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I skipped a few steps but you can now drive out the old bushings and drive in the new ones.

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Now is a good time to throw out there that for the upper hinge the bushings are in the part of the hinge attached to the body. For the lower hinge the bushings are in the part of the hinge attached to the door. All bushings need to be driven in from the outside of the hinge as is shown in the above pictures. My father actually installed the bushings in my drivers door the reverse way. He drove them in from the inside of the hinge bucket. I didn't catch this when we were putting the door back on and consequently broke the two bushings. A quick trip to the auto parts store and i had two more bushings. No harm, no foul.

So at this point you have your new roller in and your new bushings installed so you are about ready to put the door back on. As with the roller previously, i put the hinge pins in the freezer before hand to get them cold and hopefully shrink them some.

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Once again this part is a two man job. Grab the door and line it up properly with the hinge buckets and insert the pins. On one end of the pins there are knurles(sp.) that basically give the pins a press fit in one side of the hinge buckets. With the pins in take a hammer or pair of channel locks and drive the pins on down home.

Now you can compress your spring and put it back into the door.

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Now repeat for the other side if necessary. It took my father and i about 3 hours to do this job. As usual the second door was much easier than the first. I would also recommend only doing one door at a time so you can jump over to the still intact side to see exactly how the pins and bushings go. I had to do this a few times.

And just for kicks.

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[pavementpounder]

great write up...

 

[DWillmont]

Funny I just asked about these last night never found anything abou them before and already an answer from a bunch of OBS dedicated guys. Thanks alot I look forward to spending alot of time here with you guys.

 

[hquick]

A question?
What holds the roller assembly/pin in place in the replacement unit?
I'd like to machine some pins up with a thread on the top so they're easily removable in the future for bush replacement.
Also...do you have a link to the supplier of the roller/pin assembly. I have one that's severly bent.


Oh..and Ginger...are you 'Kawamatt'?

Howard

 

[hquick]

Lol! I recognise that Burb.

 

[///RAGMC]

Great write up

 

[CodyB]

A question?
Do you have a link to the supplier of the roller/pin assembly. I have one that's severly bent.
Howard

Same here, CKResto Link.

Or if your comfortable with eBay. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370311562510