05 STS front driver's door not opening

Wiring, DIY, lighting, etc.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: 05 STS front driver's door not opening

Post by kevm14 »

Dug out the potting. Since I wasn't reusing the switches I could be rough with it. I referred back to this picture probably 10 times on reassembly to make sure I had the wire pinout correct.
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Sized next to a penny for reference. They are quite small.
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Housing all dug out.
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Old and new. This revealed my first issue. The new switch is going to need some modification since it goes in butt first. I basically had to notch the sides so it would sit at the right height. Once I figured out the technique it was easy. A utility knife cut the plastic with no issue. The notches are shown in this image. It was a uniform rectangle before. Spoiler: I don't think I had it low enough the first time. I'll get back to that.
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Potted with some hot glue. Have to make sure the wires run out that side area because the bottom gets installed flat in the handle, except that small relief sticks out.
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Forgot to show more steps but I spent a while on my soldering. I ended up stripping more wire, twisted them inline, and then soldered. I used a small piece of shrink tube also, for each wire. Don't worry, I would have to undo and redo all of this. More spoilers. I did spend a while looking for my hot glue gun, which I forgot to mention before.
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Then I thought I was all smart and reassembled the handle. Duh. The handle can't go on until the bracket assembly is on. I also learned that the microswitches are fragile.
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At least I could see how reassembly would work. You just push the handle on...and the spring lever snaps behind it. Or so I thought.
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All lubed up with white lithium.
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Somewhere next I broke one of the switch plungers trying to reassemble. I was having no luck at all getting the counterweight/spring lever to catch behind the handle. I spent like an hour on it. Then I realized I had broken one of the switches. So out it came and I had to redo some work. I dug out my potting, cut some wires, installed a new switch. That's when I realized the switches probably weren't quite down far enough and that probably put too much lateral load on the plunger (since it was sticking out too far while the handle dragged along the top). Plus I think this was causing the handle to bind. Yeah. Well, to "help," after I installed my third switch, I tried pushing the switches down extra hard with a screwdriver. I cracked a housing on one. Yup. Had to install my fourth switch. This time I cut the notches on both slightly farther back so they would be more flush with the handle assembly. I better not break anything now. I used up all my switches. I was now a good 5 hours in.
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But I was still having no luck getting the handle to latch back into place. That damn counterweight lever would not snap over it. I banged and pushed and pried. Nothing worked.
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Finally about 6 hours in I had success. What worked was reassembling the reverse of removal, but carefully. On the Cadillac Forum someone said NOT to do that, because the switches could break. Uh I already did that anyway. I was just super careful and was able to look at the switches while installing the handle the opposite way I removed it (holding back on the counterweight lever, while sliding the handle forward and CAREFULLY over the microswitches). You can see how dirty everything is after touching this area for several hours.
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Used my new flashlight. I like it. I set it in the door for a while.
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NOW you can see the lever is finally past the handle.
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Ooh, factory dynamat.
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The last hour was fighting with the door panel, and tool cleanup. The upper strip was the hard part. I eventually got it. Window down. Also had to unbend the upper piece that has the felt for the window. Hard to explain...but the good news is, the handle works awesome. Super smooth operation and pops every time.
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I bet I could do this again much faster. Why is that a thing we say after shitty jobs...
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