Door parts

[Third From Texas]

problem with that is you have no sacrificial part. So you wear via metal to metal the rod or the worse.... the door latch mechanism. Plastic clips are sacrificial.. sure in 20 years you will have to replace them likely.... but they won't have wobbled out the hole in the latch either.

granted if you still have the oem door handles; something else in the handle/latch will break in the next 100 uses or less anyway so "sacrificial clips" is a mute point. If your replacing your handles with new design or NOS ones.... that is a different matter.

I had my door panel off just the other day to measure for speakers and after over a year of daily use, my driver's door (which I tacked the washer onto) shows zero wear on the rods (which is what bears the load and friction now). As I said, I've tried the OEM solutions. One set of plastics didn't last a year on my first truck, but that's my bad for buying NOS surplus (20 y/o plastic is crap whether it's in a door or collecting dust on a shelf). I still have a couple of the metal (A1R) clips on the passenger door and as those break (as you say, "sacrificial parts") I'll tack on some washers. I even have a box of the Ford clips that I ordered, but after seeing how most the metal ones that came with the truck broke, I will convert that door to washers as well.

I've had the replacement OEM solutions fail in under a year (not 20). And I'd rather fix once and never have to open the door panel again in my life. If in 20 years a rod gets sawed in half it will be someone else's problem. But after more than a year, no indication of wear on the rods or the latch arms (and I've not had a washer come off). Honestly, there isn't that much travel/weight/friction applied to the rods/latches (at least not with the newer Trimark handles, but the older handles are prone to all sorts of failures as 75% of the A0 trucks out there can attest too).

Hey, I just put it out there. Not many people have my caliber of mad welding skillz so I likely shouldn't be recommending it as a solution to the general public. ;p

ymmvv