door handle loose

[Jpx87]

my door handle on the passenger side has been a litle loose then on the drver side but hasnt caused me any problems but i figured i might as well fix it before it get real loose or falls off. anyone know how i can tighten then handle up so it wont be as loose? im hoping its something preatty easy i dont feel like paying alot of $$ just for someone to tighten it up witha screw driver. thanks by the way its a 96

[Fbody3400]

Door handle? Do you mean on the interior? Or the exterior of the car?

[Jpx87]

the exterior door handle

[Jpx87]

do u have to take the door appart to do it?

[94Redbird]

You'll have to remove the inside door panel. I'm not sure exactly what differences there are in a camaro and firebird but on my firebird you first have to remove a piece of plastic held on by one screw and once the screw is out you have to separate the manual lock switch from the rod going to the locking mechanism... it simply snaps together... and you also have to unplug the little light there by turning CCW and just pulling it out. Then pop out the button console from the door panel and unplug it... again it just snaps in. Then you can remove the panel which will involve removing like 4 screws and lifting up on panel... you might have to pull out at the top by the mirror to clear it. It is also easier with the window all the way down but you will have to temporarily plug the button console back in to raise the window to get access to the door handle. You will also have to pull back a plastic covering over the door which you can just stick back on with some duct tape when finished. Once you can get at the handle there are two self threading nuts on it... you may be able to simply tighten them but your handle might be loose because the nuts have in fact stripped out the self threading part of the handle and then you will probably have to buy a new one. I had to replace mine because it cracked in two. Not a real hard job though... biggest pain I found was trying to snap the rod from the lock mechanism back into the lock switch. There's a bit of a trick to it... you got to kind of slide it towards the front of the car to get a good grip on it. Hope this helps.

[Jpx87]

thanks for the info do u have any pics of this i jsut dont wanna screww anything up.

[94Redbird]

Do you have a Camaro or a Firebird? This site here for replacing the window motor shows pics of them removing the door panels from a Camaro...

http://shbox.com/page/windowmotor.html

If you have a Firebird and still don't think you're sure what you need to do let me know and I will take some pics of my door panel and inside for you.

[Jpx87]

camaro