On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 10:26:30 -0800, Shawn Wright <swright@zuiko.sls.bc.ca> wrote: > My new '82 has the exterior sliding door handle broken off. (I have the > broken one). EKTA suggests that the newer style was, or could be, > substituted. Is this correct? How hard is it to swap the lock cylinder? > Does anyone have a good spare? > > Also, this van has two interior handles - a second one just like the main > interior one is mounted at the rear of the door onto a square post which > does not turn. Is this normal? > > -- > Shawn Wright
Shawn, The exterior handle in the 85 and later vans are shorter but have a longer return. You make them fit by cutting off that curved end shorter. Otherwise, it will scrape the door. The lock cylinders are easy enough to remove. Once you have the handle off the van, take the tiny set-screw used to retain the cylinder. You may have to do some cleaning to find the tiny hole on the part that normally sticks inside the hole in the door. Then stick an old key in the keyhole and slowly pull out the cylinder. Replace with your old cylinder or shuffle the wafers around to match your key. If this is beyond your abilities, you can take it to your local locksmith or try Listee Steve's Lock Shoppe at http://www.steveslockshop.com/ You can find used handles on ebay. There's one there now w/o a key for $45. Bus Depot still has a few new ones for about $80. They are at http://busdepot.com/index.jsp. I recently bought a few on ebay for much less. Pmail me if you can't find one for a decent price and don't want to try the two options suggested above. There is normally ONE handle on the inside. There should be a lower locking latch activated by a button. That button can be unscrewed. The handle itself is normally held by a Phillips head screw. Normally position should be vertical (handle pointing down). To open you pull towards the rear. It will seem to not work if the locking latch is engaged. Sometimes the rear latch of the door is stuck. Give it a shove to open. The handle you wrote about to the rear of the door is not normal. There is a secondary latching mechanism there but is normally activated by the single handle on the opening side simultaneously with the main latch. Hope this helps. -- BenT |
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