david686

Barricade, that is how mine broke, I used copper wire to hold the lower end of cable in place. Worked great, but while adjusting, the upper cable holder broke while the door was in the closed position. I can not reach the upper cable support to tie it up with copper wire. Some day I will have to open it up again and drill an access hole to get to the upper latch and fix it. But for now the door is latched close so it can wait.

F-150-250-350

Hello 12u351: I'm having the same issue with the trucks rear door not opening . I would like to follow your suggestions, but first , how did you remove the rear panels from rear doors when doors are in closed position ?

david686

You have to get in the back on your hands and knees and 'pop' the panels off. I just hope your problem is not like mine. And that is, my release cable/rod to the upper latch, came off at the upper latch when the door was closed and you can't get to it even with the panels removed. It appears the only fix is to remove the upper latch, which you can't do with the door closed. And that is where I am to this date.

12u351

Wow I can't remember and I know that doesn't help you anything. It's being so long since I worked on my brothers truck that I can't remember how to pull the panels out. I just called my bro and he tells me that there is nothing hard about getting the panels out. They snap out with a screw driver inserted between the panel and the door. There might be a phillips screw for the handle but that's it. Once the panel is out stick your hand into the cavity and pull the level. Once the door is open then you can work on the rest and get it fixed. Wow, I never imagined I could ever be so popular! Thank you all. If you still can't fix it and really need to speak with me, send me an email to lowriderluis@gmail.com with your phone number and I will give you a call. I can't make international calls.

Puto

Good thread w/ good pointers. Thanks everyone.

kennyk860

Just bought 2000 F150 and the rear passenger door top wouldn't open.
Looked on this forum and found out what the problem was. Got the door open thank's to posts here, took the interior panels off to get to opening mechanism. Couldn't have been easier, just popped the top panel off using a long thin screw driver, then just 2 screws and a nut for the bottom panel. Got to the mechanism and pulled the top cable and open!
It was the plastic sleeve that fell apart, so cleaned it up and came up with this fix.

I needed some type of spacer on the cable and big enough so it wouldn't pull into the latch mechanism, I unscrewed the latch and pulled it out.

I took a orange (size?) wire nut, the type you use to attach electrical wires together.
Drilled out the center with a bit about the size of the cable, in the process the metal "spring" in the nut was removed.
Then I took a thin bladed saw, in my case a copping sax but a hacksaw would work. Held on to the nut with vise grips and sawed through one side length wise.
Then cut the wire nut approx in half keeping the larger bottom part.
Then went to my truck and pulled on the latch and got the cable through the lenght wise slice .
I had to shave about 1/8 inch off of nut peice because it worked out side but when I reinstalled latch it was to tight an opened.
Works great and costed about $.10

rtausn

My problem is the cable slipped out the bottom and the door is closed. Any way to unlatch the bottom? Thanks, Ron

oldman123

I found some pictures on one or the threads yesterday. When I got into the door behind the panels, it was a simple fix. I drilled two 1/8" holes just inside the window and used a piece of 18 gauge steel wire about 12" long and a piece of 3/8" copper tube about 1-1/2" long that I split length wise and spread open and put over cable and pinched it back closed. I wrapped the wire around the tubing fed the ends up through the holes and twisted about two or three turns.
The latch works great now, almost no cost. After the first door, the second took me 30 min. to fix from start to finish.
hope this helps some one. Maybe the copper tube was not needed but I thought while I was in there it might take some stress off the latch cable. This was for the top latch.
oldman123

PenTheMonster

That's what happened to my lil bros truck. But the wire didn't break, only the bracket broke so I just zip tied the cable and works fine.

Traceylou

Ok bought this truck in nov last year from ford dealer, one of the rear doors did not open got it fixed now its happened to the other door and again with the other door that was fixed ..bhf: . drives me nuts that this has been a minor problem for years with ford truck doors. why can they not rectify it at ford,, anyway gonna try go for it myself.. does anyone know the name of the mechanism. if its more than the cable. thanks

also it has some sunburn ie clear coat peeled off (sorry i am british) i know there is another name for it here. would a tad of clear coat rectify it.