need to replace door latch, anyone done it?

[sweatmachine]

my door latch broke on the driver's side. I got a new one for about $175 (ouch!). Has anyone replaced one before?

I've never done this before, but I'm pretty handy and I have plenty of tools. What's the process? take stuff off, swap latch, put it back together?

any "gotchas" I should know about?

thanks!

[Mr79C10]

I removed my drivers side out to give it a good clean it up.
It was kinda a pain for the first time, smaller hands will make life a bit easier,
Remove your panel,
3 bolts that holds it to the door and then fight with the door lock and handle rods.
Say prolly about 30 mins. of your time.

[S10Fan]

Originally Posted by Mr79C10

Say prolly about 30 mins. of your time.

...........and that's just the time spent cussing, actual install could take longer.

[mhicks]

Don't lose the little clips for the rods. May have to make a trip to the auto supply store. They usually just drop inside the door but are sometimes hard to find.

[sweatmachine]

man, what a pain in the a$$. It took me an hour to get the old one out, and 4 beers to recover from that!!!

The new one went in a little easier, but I'm still not done. had to come in for another coldie!

[sweatmachine]

I forgot to mention I broke the door handle when I took the panel off the inside, so I'll be driving sans panel until the new one comes in. NICE!

I finally got it all buttoned up, except for the inside door handle. It only took me 4 hours, just a tad bit over the initial estimate of 30 minutes plus cussing time. It's all good though. This new latch works like BUTTAH!