How do you change a driver's side door handle on a astro van?

Answer 1

Take off the door panel from inside. Start at the inside door handle, their are 2 plastic covers over the 2 screws that hold the door handle (pry these off with a flat screwdriver), undo the 2 hex screws and slide forward or back (I think forward) to remove it. There is a another screw (phillips) to undo at the right side of the panel . You will remove this also. Then pull out on the panel, starting at the bottom. There are thirteen plastic clips holding it. Any plastic clips that are too damaged to reuse can be replaced with new parts from the dealer. If they charge you more than 25 cents each, you might try a different dealer. When you get to the top of the door panel, it lifts straight up to come off of the door. If the door panel hasn't been removed before, there will be a paper moisture barrier in place that you probably have to tear to get access to the door handle. You can fix it with tape later if you don't tear it up too much.There are two nuts that hold the handle in place. You will need a 10mm open end wrench for the top nut. For the bottom nut, you must remove a plastic grommet from the end of the door then use a socket wrench with extension to remove the nut. The bottom nut is easy to remove, the top nut is fairly difficult especially puttng the nut back on. Someone with long skinny fingers will have no problem. There is also a clip that holds the handle to the linkage. To remove this, you pry up on the tab that sticks out toward the handle, and push it in the opposite direction. Take a look at the one that came with the new door handle to see how it works. The linkage fits into a slot in the clip, and moving the clip gets the slot to a wider opening where the linkage can slip right out. This is the trickiest part to reinstall. It is recommended that the key lock linkage be moved out of the way before doing any of this work. This is done by removing the circlip attached to the keylock, this allows the linkage to move up out of the way. The job is so much easier with this linkage not in the way.The new handles coming out of Taiwan used to be of better quality than the genuine AC Delco product, but this is no longer the case. I have heard that if you keep the linkage well lubricated, the handle will not break. This is probably true, so try to lubricate all the pivot points with white grease while you have the door taken apart.When you are ready to install the new handle, decide which clip to use for the linkage (the old one or the new one, use whichever looks of better quality), and slide the clip out a bit so the end of the linkage can slip into the hole. Also make sure the new door handle has a rubber gasket on the back to go between it and the door(some do not have a gasket). If not, use the one off the old door handle. To put the handle in place, you may have to operate it so that it is in the position it would be in if you were actually opening the door, and hold it like that against the spring as you slip it into position. Then, before putting the two nuts back on, get the linkage attached correctly. Put the nuts on, and the plastic grommet and door panel back on, and you're done.This job is harder then it looks for a nonprofessional but it can be done with a little patience.B:You can try the above and pull your hair out or just do as I did!

The Best way to remove and replace the old handle is to remove the door latching system there are 3 star drive screws located in the jamb, before you pull those out remove the 4 connecting rods to the latch, this will save you hours of trying to get to the top 10mm nut that is impossible to replace once off, removing the latch gives you "full access" to the top nut!