I've gutted my doors and have been trying to figure out how to do actuate the door release mechanism from inside.

I like the idea of a wire or band across the length of the door that I can pull to release the door and I've seen some set them, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to do it.

My car is a 2004 MSM and everything in the latch works in the vertical plane, meaning that anything spanning the door creates forces in the wrong plane -- fore-aft.

Some pics attached: The A shows the rod that attaches to the exterior door handle. B shows the metal tab beneath the white plastic shown in the first photo.




Do the older cars have a different mech that works with a fore-aft pull?

Thanks!

 

Verified that the latches are different in earlier years, but not sure when the switch happened. 2001 had the old style and 2004 has the new. If anyone has more data for 2002 and 2003, it would be appreciated.

Thx.

 

Major props to Sean at Miatacage.com. Once he learned that the 2004 latches do not work with his pulls, he offered a full refund. I indicated I would be more interested in having older latches, assuming they'll work in my doors, prompting him to source and and send me a set.

That's the way to stand behind your products!