It's a common problem with the DSM and I just fixed a friends and mine. Here is a pic of the passenger door lock actuator mechanism.
The bigger rod on the right is attached to the outside door handle (other rod is the key lock rod). Assuming nothing else is wrong, this rod bends slightly after years of use so that it no longer pushes down (goes left in pic) far enough to open the door mechanism. The proper and best fix is to unbolt the actuator and then remove the door handle and bend this rod about 10* straighter (where it used to be).
You don't have to remove the actuator (it's a REAL pain to get out around the window slides) but just unbolt it so it can move up near the door handle opening when you remove the door handle so you can bend the rod. Either way you'll have to remove the inner door panel to unbolt the door handle.
I DON'T RECOMMEND THIS BUT there's another more getto way which sometimes works where you don't have to remove the door handle. Notice the bolt I added at the end of the door handle rod (it's not normally there). This effectively reduces the outside handle throw needed to open the door.
It's tight but you can add this with everything (except the inner door panel) still on the car. The trade off is sometimes (happened on one of my doors) it allows the door open rod to move too far where it interferes with the outside key mechanism of the actuator.
[Edit: Note: I wouldn't recommend doing this getto thing of putting a bolt in the rods slot like I show in my pics - it caused more problems than it was worth. Instead do the above 1st paragraph way (which is also post 12 - read that for more detail.]
The bigger rod on the right is attached to the outside door handle (other rod is the key lock rod). Assuming nothing else is wrong, this rod bends slightly after years of use so that it no longer pushes down (goes left in pic) far enough to open the door mechanism. The proper and best fix is to unbolt the actuator and then remove the door handle and bend this rod about 10* straighter (where it used to be).
You don't have to remove the actuator (it's a REAL pain to get out around the window slides) but just unbolt it so it can move up near the door handle opening when you remove the door handle so you can bend the rod. Either way you'll have to remove the inner door panel to unbolt the door handle.
I DON'T RECOMMEND THIS BUT there's another more getto way which sometimes works where you don't have to remove the door handle. Notice the bolt I added at the end of the door handle rod (it's not normally there). This effectively reduces the outside handle throw needed to open the door.
It's tight but you can add this with everything (except the inner door panel) still on the car. The trade off is sometimes (happened on one of my doors) it allows the door open rod to move too far where it interferes with the outside key mechanism of the actuator.
[Edit: Note: I wouldn't recommend doing this getto thing of putting a bolt in the rods slot like I show in my pics - it caused more problems than it was worth. Instead do the above 1st paragraph way (which is also post 12 - read that for more detail.]
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