Interior door handle mechanism

[chevynut]

I got the Nomad door handles finished the other day. I used the Clayton Machine handles with a Lokar cable kit. It's strange to me that these companies don't try to make their parts compatible with each other, but they are competitors too.

The Lokar kit comes with a clevis on one end of the cable, and an adjuster on the other end, plus a pulley. I used everything but the clevises but I modified the adjuster too.

Here's the kit:


The clevises are basically worthless for a Tri5 because they won't work on the latch end unless you drill out the hole to 3/16". Plus I wanted the adjuster on the latch end. The clevises also won't work on the Clayton handles. So I ditched them and made my own out of stainless. The adjusters also won't work on either end because the ball threads are too long unless you run the cable on the inside of the door and they won't fit into the claytom handles. I decided to run the cables on the outside of the door (inboard side), so I removed the balls and drilled holes in the adjusters for a screw.

Then I mounted the door handles where I wanted them to be and built a plate to attach them to. The plate attaches to the 3 stock door handle nuts. I didn't worry about where the handles fit on the door, just on the door panel. I added the pulleys to get the cable angle right, and to keep the cables away from the doors and tracking correctly. Everything fits in the channel in the door and I only had to make small openings for the Clayton handle levers.

I was initially worried that the Clayton handles didn't have enough "throw" to open my doors, but found out that they do work, but barely. The nice thing about the Lokar adjusters is that you can take the slack out of the cables easily. Clayton tried to convince me that I could just run the cables through the latch and handle, and crimp them in place. BS. You have to get the adjustment just right. I'm surprised they don't sell a simple cable kit with the handles.


Here's what I ended up with, and they work great.

20140224_011.jpg20140224_009.jpg20140224_010.jpg

[MP&C]

Is that a compression fitting at the latch end?

[carls 56 (RIP 11/24/2021)]

thanks for sharing.

[NickP]

Is that a compression fitting at the latch end?

Picture #1? That's a scary one if in a wreck and too much force is applied and pulls the cable past that setscrew.

[chevynut]

The setscrew holds the cable into the adjuster. This is the same way Lokar does it, and lots of people use them. The adjuster is the exact same part used on Lokar throttle cables and is all steel. You guys aren't going to invent a problem that doesn't exist, are you?

[NickP]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, not me!