poprock
New member
I don't like admitting defeat, but after three hours of swearing in the garage when I should have been out driving in the sun, I'm calling it quits.
Has anyone successfully swapped a set of door handles on a late-model Turbo with central locking? How did you do it?
I know that Porsche changed the design of lots of little bits around the system again and again during the life of the 944, which is why none of the how-to guides online are helping me.
Clark's Garage explains here how to change a set without central locking, without even taking the door cards off. Haynes manual explains the same. I know that taking my door card off is essential to disconnect the central locking wire, though.
On the late model cars, Porsche added a steel guard inside the door frame, which completely covers up the area where all the ball joints are that connect your handles to the door release and locking mechanism. This steel plate is welded in place. It means you can't get to the ball joints, even to put them back on if they come adrift (stopping your lock working, for instance).
I did find one how-to guide on changing the handles on a car like mine, here on an old defunct American forum, which suggests leaving the mechanism and ball joints in place (because they can't be accessed) and disconnecting higher up on the back of the handle by tapping out a pin that holds the mechanism to the handle.
Porsche had changed the design again since that though; my handles are held to the mechanism with a different type of pin (using an e-clip) and need to be pushed through from the opposite end "¦ where there's no access to do so.
Someone has suggested here on Pelican Parts that they managed to get around this type of door handle arrangement by making themselves some tools to fiddle around through the tiny gap along the welded steel plate. Sounds to me more luck than good judgement though. I'm too scared to pop the joint off on my current handles without clear access to pop the joint back on again on the new ones.
I gave up and put the door back together.
Does anyone have any ideas? Is there something I'm missing?
I would have taken photos to demonstrate the problem, but frankly none of the relevant bits are actually visible. It's all inside the door and sealed up behind this welded plate. Why did Porsche do that in the first place? To stop people changing the locks or something?
Has anyone successfully swapped a set of door handles on a late-model Turbo with central locking? How did you do it?
I know that Porsche changed the design of lots of little bits around the system again and again during the life of the 944, which is why none of the how-to guides online are helping me.
Clark's Garage explains here how to change a set without central locking, without even taking the door cards off. Haynes manual explains the same. I know that taking my door card off is essential to disconnect the central locking wire, though.
On the late model cars, Porsche added a steel guard inside the door frame, which completely covers up the area where all the ball joints are that connect your handles to the door release and locking mechanism. This steel plate is welded in place. It means you can't get to the ball joints, even to put them back on if they come adrift (stopping your lock working, for instance).
I did find one how-to guide on changing the handles on a car like mine, here on an old defunct American forum, which suggests leaving the mechanism and ball joints in place (because they can't be accessed) and disconnecting higher up on the back of the handle by tapping out a pin that holds the mechanism to the handle.
Porsche had changed the design again since that though; my handles are held to the mechanism with a different type of pin (using an e-clip) and need to be pushed through from the opposite end "¦ where there's no access to do so.
Someone has suggested here on Pelican Parts that they managed to get around this type of door handle arrangement by making themselves some tools to fiddle around through the tiny gap along the welded steel plate. Sounds to me more luck than good judgement though. I'm too scared to pop the joint off on my current handles without clear access to pop the joint back on again on the new ones.
I gave up and put the door back together.
Does anyone have any ideas? Is there something I'm missing?
I would have taken photos to demonstrate the problem, but frankly none of the relevant bits are actually visible. It's all inside the door and sealed up behind this welded plate. Why did Porsche do that in the first place? To stop people changing the locks or something?
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