The door latch cable inside my driver's side door broke. The dealer wants a couple bills for the whole latch / handle assembly. I couldn't find just the cable, so here's the fix I did for about $40.

Even though this broken cable was in my driver's side front door, I found a used rear door latch / cable assembly for $40 and wondered if it would work. I disassembled the doors and found that the cable in the rear door was about 1 1/2" longer than the one in the front door. The cables otherwise appeared identical. What I'm really pointing out here is that you should be able to use any of the 04-08 door cables to replace a broken one. Would the shorter front cable be long enough for the rear door? I don't know. Here's the fix on an 05 Super Crew Lariat:

The offending cable is behind this handle:


Remove the cover plate and remove these two bolts:


Pop off the control panel:


Remove this bolt:


Pop off the speaker grill:




Remove and disconnect the speaker:




Lift out the rubber gasket:


Remove the two lower nylon speaker mounts:


(continued)

 

You'll find two of these bolts on the lower edge of the door:


Lift the door panel up and away. You'll be looking down at the latch cable attached to the interior handle:


Towards the end of the backside of the handle you'll see a plastic tab....carefully bend it to the side to release the interior door handle assembly:


And here's where it all went wrong.......and what Ford wants a couple hundred for:


Here's the used part I bought:


The replacement cable is about 1 1/2" longer than the broken one:


Carefully pull aside this plastic sheet to access the latch assembly:




Remove this bolt that holds the window guide and electrical connection:


(continued)

 

Lift it out of the way and disconnect the wiring:


Remove these three bolts securing the latch (use loctite when re-installing them):


Looking in the inside of the door, reach in and flip that green tab over to release the threaded bar. It's hinged to the left:


The rod with the curved end simply clips in to that plastic end. I used a 6mm deep socket on its side to depress both tabs while I pulled the rod away:


There's still some connections keeping the latch from coming all the way out, but you can now pull it toward the opening to get to the cable end:


Lift the plastic black hood away to access the cable end. That cable is going to slip right over the metal tab for easy removal:


Use some pliers to pop the cable retainer through the opening on the back side:



(continued)

 

Needle nose pliers will get the cable to clear the tab:



At this point, the old broken cable can be lifted out.

The next photos show some of the above, but are bench shots of the disassembly of the used latch I bought. Same process.....just more clear:










Reassembly is the reverse. I recommend tightening the three bolts hold the latch assembly in first before re-engaging the threaded rod end with the green clip, so that it goes in at the correct height: