A Manly Task, Early in the Morning

Ah, nothing like getting started early in the morning, say around 6 AM or so, before breakfast, and getting to work repairing your ride.

In this case, our Isuzu Rodeo - the left rear door didn't lock - which really hampers shopping forays. I grabbed my trusty Haynes manual and toolbox and set to work.

I forgot to mention, there was a good cup of coffee ready to go as well. So, a quick perusal of the manual, and grabbing a screwdriver, I dismantled the inside door cover. So far, so good. It went just as advertised in the book (not sure if that's a good or bad omen).

Almost right away, I found the problem. A pretty blue twisty thing had come dislodged from its bracket in the door panel. I figured out how to reinsert it, but it had a tendency to want to pop back out. It looked as though there should have been a clip or something that kept it from coming back out of the hole.

I fashioned a clip out of some stout wire I found in Tony's tool shed and test fit it into the blue thingy. I enlisted Dianna's help to install it because I couldn't get my hand into the hole and wiggled around to install the clip.

Just as we were about to try installing the clip, I demonstrated how the blue thingy functioned for Dianna. Doing that, it looked like part of it spun independently of the other part, which gave me the idea that maybe it was self-locking in the slot. So I stuck it in and using my pliers, turned it. I could feel it snap into place. Problem solved. Dianna got to keep her hands clean.

I closed the door back up, again according to instructions from the manual, and again, it went just as described. Don't you just love it when something goes together like that? What a feeling of accomplishment.