Mustang door lock, latch and handles 1965 1966

Here is how the door latch, release handles and locks work on your car. In the second picture, the outside door handle rod is indicated by the green arrow, the rod that the door lock knob screws onto is indicated by the blue arrow, the outside door lock cylinder rod is indicated by the red arrow, and the inside door release handle rod is indicated by the brown arrow. The third picture ( further down )shows how the outside door handle rod is connected to the latch mechanism in the red circle. It is basically just pushed into a slotted plastic bushing. You don't want to detach that if you don't have to because they never really hold as well after they've been popped loose and then reinstalled. The outside door lock cylinder rod is held to the latch by a springy little clip, as shown in the green circle. If you look at the fourth picture, you will have a much better look at another one of those clips which is holding the outside door handle rod to the outside door handle. The clip has been popped loose, which allows the rod to be removed from the handle.

If you are replacing the outside door handle, you just pop that clip loose, remove the nut that's holding the front of the door handle to the car, and then the phillips head screw that's holding the rear part of the door handle to the car. If you open the door and look at the face where the latch sticks out , where the door tag is on the driver's side door, etc.. you will see two rubber bumpers, or possibly just the rectangular holes where the bumpers are supposed to be. About four inches above the top bumper is a screw head. That's the one holding the door handle.

The next picture shows the outside door lock cylinder attached to the rod, again, with one of those clips. And, again, the clip is popped loose. To remove the lock cylinder, you simply pop that clip loose, and then pull the big, flat U-shaped clip that's holding the lock cylinder onto the car, as shown in the top picture, along with the part number for a new lock cylinder set, and then carefully pull the old lock cylinder out of the door from the outside. It is very, very easy to damage your paint when removing the door handle and the lock cylinder. Just take your time, be careful and you shouldn't have any problems.

The last two pictures show the attaching points for the inside door release handle rod. The last picture shows the rod attached to the door release lever mechanism. This triangular shaped piece is what has the shaft that the inside door release handle is attached to. That shaft is over on the other side of piece. The next to the last picture shows the inside door handle release rod attached to the door latch mechanism, again, with one of those clips.

Just a word about those clips. They have a death-grip on those rods. It would be very impressive indeed to see someone just reach in there and pop them loose with their fingers without gashing those fingers to shreds in the process. I take a very small flat blade screwdriver and push up under that little tail on the clips and pop them loose like that. Also, I never had any trouble reaching any of this stuff inside the door, but, if you are a man, your arms will be several inches longer and significantly larger in diameter than mine. At least, I would certainly hope that they are. (I wish I had smilies here) Also, you have the window regulator mechanism and the rear guide track for the window to work around. With all of this stuff still inside the door, you can't actually see most of this junk while you're working on it. You have to do it by feel, using the three-dimensional hologram diagram in your mind as a guide. Also, you can't possibly get both hands on the same component at the same time. You locate the rod, feel along to the end until you locate the clip, feel for the little tail on the clip and which way it's pointing, put the little screwdriver under it and pop it loose.

Once you get to this point, if you want to actually remove the latch mechanism, all you have to do is remove those three phillips head screws holding it onto the car that are located on the outside of the door latch, forming a little triangle around the latch, and then snatch it out of there. The window's rear guide track is going to try to prevent you from removing the latch mechanism, but don't take no for an answer. It's your car, not the guide track's.