Rear door exterior handle disengaged
 

My 91 4runner has one rear door - drivers side - that won't open from the outside. It opens with the pull from the interior. The power lock raises the physical lock. the actuator actuates but the outside door handle isn't engaged with whatever it should be so it always *feels* locked from the outside. i have the interior trim panel off but i don't know what i'm looking at. can anyone give m some advice on what to look for? something must have been disconnected, right? because everything else works and everything i can see does what it's supposed to. any help would be greatly appreciated.

You should have a lever from the handle to the door latch, looks similar but waaaaaaay shorter like the one that goes to the inside handle, could be as simple as the plastic holder that holds to the latch assembly popped off. If you got time as it’s not that difficult to pull your passenger panel off and compare, I’m not much help in explaining what’s in my brain;)

thanks for your help. i'm attaching the best photo i can manage. there's a lot crammed in there, it's tight as well as behind the door sheet metal so it's very difficult to see if something isn't right. i don't see anything dangled/disconnected. i don't see any bar that is meant to go from the outside handle to the thing that ultimately moves the latch. there's a piece that's in the way, too. i'll see if i'm able to get that out of the way.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.yot...5b42b7abc0.jpg

Pic I pulled of the net,

can you see if all this looks intact, the little yellow clip good?


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.yot...863d4f46d8.png

How do i get this plastic shield piece out of the way? i mean, i could do it but it will be in pieces. there must be a proper method?

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.yot...113c27e009.jpg

Hmmmm, not sure on that as I have a pickup that doesn’t have that shield, can you see anything holding it on other than the one bolt that is removed? Can you push up on it or slide it out? Maybe it slides down or sideways into tabs? If that makes sense..I’m sure someone on here will chime in if they have messed with the rear door, sorry I’m not an extreme amount of help, but I do want to see it fixed;)

no, prob. i appreciate your replies. that plastic bit is really in there, can't move up, down, or left at all and starts to slide out to the right it's not flat and the depth of it blocks it from coming out in that direction. i wonder how necessary it is, thinking of doing whatever i have to to extract it.

I can’t find crap on the tube either, anyone on here familiar with the rear runner door that can help???

I had the same problem with my 95 runner recently, it turned out to be the outer handle broke where the rod connects.
I got fed up with the plastic shield and folded it like a taco and pulled it out.
I'm pretty sure it's just there to make it harder for someone to jimmy your door open when locked.

Or a shade-tree mechanic to try to work on it, obviously :D

Sorry, I just had to say it.
Good luck!
Pat☺

Obviously i got sidetracked but went back at it and resolved it today. That plastic shield thing was a bit of PIA because it's fastened at the top somehow and wouldn't simple pull out even after i had cut off a good portion of it. But once i removed enough of it i could get a sense for what was happening and it was as simple as forcing the rod that connects the handle to the latch (not 100% i'm using the right word there) by physically forcing it back in to the plastic thing that receives it. in other words it had become disconnected, you could move the outside handle up and down, the spring still snapped it back to its resting position but there was nothing moving on the other end. i just had to get a little light on the subject and i could see where the rod needed to be forced back into its receiver and it was fine. nothing was broken, though i'm concerned it could slip back out, i have no idea how that could have happened in the first place. if i can just reassemble the interior bits again and i'm in good shape.

thanks all for your replies!