'84 Door Handle Broken

[dscluchfc]

On our recent trip, the outside door handle on our 84 Excella became cracked and has broken leaving a well placed screwdriver the only source of operating the entry handle.

I see on Inland Andy's RV's website that part 22390, door handle asssembly, is the suggested replacement, and it says some "modifications" are needed, and in the picture of the part, a aluminum template is shown.
http://www.inlandrv.com/parts/22390-lock78-91.jpg

Has anyone done this installation themselves?
What are the modifications and what is the level of difficulty?

Thanks for the help everyone!

[guy99]

I haven't installed one but there is a lest one thread on this site which describes a custom replacement for the broken handle.

Here: http://www.airforums.com/forums/f160...dle-10679.html

[nickcrowhurst]

Originally Posted by dscluchfc

Has anyone done this installation themselves?
What are the modifications and what is the level of difficulty?

I did this on our Excella a few years ago. The main difficulty is that the new lock and plate only just covers the old hole. And I mean "just". I had to get creative with some Vulkem to seal the edges. A few holes have to be drilled, and that's about it. Now you mention a template, I remember having to draw an outline on the sheet aluminum to enlarge the hole. The end result looks fine, but it was not the most satisfying of tasks. I think my old grandpa would have called it a "bodge".
Nick.

[nickcrowhurst]

Dredging back into my memory, the existing hole has to be extended in one direction in accordance with the cutting template, but in the other direction, the hole is already slightly too large. I hope that makes sense.
Nick.

[dscluchfc]

I ordered the part 22390 (door handle) after talking to Greg, one of the service techs) at Inland RV this morning.
He tells me I don't have to be an engineer to install it....I hope he is right.

[dscluchfc]

Received the handle in 3 days via UPS from Inland RV....thanks Andy!

All parts on the list were there I guess as the page one says continued, but there was no page 2....

The install required some minor modifications to the door and door jam to enlarge the hole area to include the new deadbolt assembly of the new lock.

The door jam striker plate had to be replaced with the new one supplied and the hole enlarged to enable the deadbolt to engage from the door to the door jam.

The supplied aluminum templates to cover the old larger hole worked fine, the outter template having to be trimmed and filed to proper size to avoid striking the midline rail on the door.

Time for installation, for me, having never done one of these, was five hours. I think I could do a second one in 2 hours because of experience.
After the install, I placed two olympic rivets at the upper corners of the outter template to keep those corners from wanting to pull up. Pookied in the rivets with Parrbond and set them, then filed them down until the head was smooth to the bump. Then I used Parbond to seal the cracks on the template and outter rim of the lock.

A nice setup to install. Protective eyeglasses, tin snips, files, grinder, drill, rivet tool, screwdrivers, and dremel tool was all that was required.