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Hi, I'm Mike from 1AAuto. We've been selling auto parts for over 30 years! We're dedicated to delivering quality auto parts, expert customer service, and fast and free shipping, all backed by our 100% satisfaction guarantee. So visit us at 1AAuto.com, your trusted source for quality auto parts.
In this video, we're going to be working with our 1998 Ford F-150. We're going to show you how to remove and replace your vehicle's tailgate handle.
If you like this video, please click subscribe. We have a ton more information on this and many other vehicles. If you need this part for your truck, you can follow the link down in the description over to 1AAuto.com.
Here are the items you'll need for this repair: 10mm socket, ratchet, T30 Torx socket, small flat blade screwdriver
Now we're going to open the tailgate to do this, but if yours is broken and preventing you from opening the tailgate, these same steps can be followed from inside the bed with the tailgate in the upright position.
You have eight pieces of hardware securing the cover and the backplate onto the tailgate. Ours have clearly been replaced a few times and are various styles and sizes of hardware. Use the appropriate tool and ratchet to remove whatever hardware is securing your plastic back cover. If you don't have this plastic cover the hardware should be the same and in the same locations to remove the steel backing. Remove the plastic backing if you have it. Once you remove your plastic cover, if you have one, you'll have two T-30 Torx bolts you need to remove. I'm pretty sure this is the original hardware that should have been holding the plastic piece of the tailgate onto, so you probably already have this tool out. Remove the metal backing.
Now, once you've got the back cover off, there's a few things that could be preventing your tailgate from opening. Either this little leg which is what actuates the arm and turns the mechanism to open your latches is broken off and not moving the actuator. The actuator is stuck. Your latch rods are broken or out of adjustment. If the latch rod is broken, grab the mechanism or as close as you can to the mechanism here on both sides, and pull both latch rods toward the center, and open your tailgate.
Use a small flat blade screwdriver to pry up the tabs and release the lock rods from the tailgate. Using a 10-millimeter socket and ratchet, you can remove the two nuts securing the tailgate handle to the tailgate. We can then pull down and fold the bottom out to remove the handle from the vehicle. Our vehicle has a lock provision, as does the chrome tailgate handle we're going to be replacing it with. If your vehicle does not have a lock mechanism you can skip these steps here and go right back to installing it into your tailgate. If you do have a lock mechanism, use a small flat blade screwdriver to pry out this snap clip, and wiggle the lock mechanism out of the handle.
Here we have our old tailgate handle that we removed from our vehicle, and our new part from 1AAuto.com. Now the only real difference you'll see here is that our new piece is chrome because we wanted to upgrade the look of our truck a little bit. Other than that, all the mechanisms are going to be the same. We have the same lock provision, same handle, same two-bolt mounting on the rear. We have the same latch release. You can see everything operates in just the same way. So if your old tailgate handle is cracked, broken, or damaged, or you just want to make the back of your truck look a little bit nicer with this chrome upgraded piece, it's going to go in direct fit just like our original equipment. It’ll update the look of your truck, and fix you up right.
Take your new tailgate handle, which actually comes with a new snap ring which we'll pop out. Install our old lock to make sure everything works just like the original equipment did. We'll reinstall that snap ring into the channels. Reinstall the tailgate handle. You'll then have to set the mechanism back on there. There's some plastic clips on the bottom of the mechanism to lock it into place. Once it's in there, you can reinstall your two 10 millimeter nuts, and tighten them down with a socket and ratchet.
Now in reinstalling the latch rods, you'll want to pull the slack out of them without actually moving the latch, and lock them back into their tabs.
Now before we reinstall our back cover, we'll open and close the tailgate a few times to make sure our latch rod adjustment works. Now if the tailgate won't close fully on one side, you'll need to back off the adjustment a little bit, and give the rod some more slack, or if it's difficult to open, with having this off you can reach in there and pull it manually to release, and then you'll want to pull a little more slack out of the latch rods.
Reinstall the metal cover. Now if you have the plastic cover, start by installing the two T-30 Torx bolts. If you don't have the plastic cover, reinstall all ten of your T-30 Torx bolts at this point and tighten them down. Now if you have the plastic cover like we do, reinstall it, and you should have eight T-30 Torx bolts to reinstall. We have miscellaneous hardware that we'll be putting back in. Close your tailgate, and you're good to go.
Thanks for watching. Visit us at 1AAuto.com for quality auto parts, fast and free shipping, and the best customer service in the industry.
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Brought to you by 1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet.
Hi, I'm Mike Green. I'm one of the owners of 1A Auto. I want to help you save time and money repairing or maintaining your vehicle. I'm going to use my 20-plus years experience restoring and repairing cars and trucks like this to show you the correct way to install parts from 1AAuto.com. The right parts installed correctly: that's going to save you time and money. Thank you and enjoy the video.
In this video, we'll be showing you how to replace the tail gate handle on this Explorer Sport Trac. This tail gate handle is used on the Sport Trac and it's also used on the full-sized pickups, so this video will show you generally how the handle is replaced, although some steps such as taking the panel off and stuff may differ if you have a different truck than this.
For this truck, the tools needed are a T30 Torx bit and an 11mm socket and ratchet or wrench. Okay so replace the tailgate handle, first you have to get to it. Some trucks it will be right there. This is a Sport Trac, so first I have to remove six T30 Torx screws and now I have to pull these pins at the bottom of the shield, this liner. Then you just grab on right near the pins and pull up. That's how you get the liner off. So I'm going to take the liner off now.
First, I'm going to remove these two 11mm nuts here. Put them in my tray. Then, the handle pretty much just pulls right out the back side.
So here's the new handle from 1A but you can see that the new handle from 1A is the exact same. Everything's going to bolt up the same. You would need to just use a screwdriver and pull this clip out, remove your lock and then pull the clip out, put your lock back in and push the clip back in. For installation, put it down and in and rotate it up. Get the pins, put the bolt up, put the latch mechanism on. Okay, just going to shake the handle a little bit, make sure it's seated in the tail gate and we'll tighten the bolts, snug, not using a lot of torque, just as tight as I can get it with this screwdriver style socket and then quick test and everything's working.
We've tightened those bolts up and again on the Sport Trac we're going to just take this piece and put it into place, just start a couple of these. Okay, I'm going to feel for the hole, make sure that the bolts are going down in before I press them. Make sure you find the hole first and then put our bolts on.
We hope this helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet. Please feel free to call us toll-free, 888-844-3393. We're the company that's here for you on the Internet and in person.
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Brought to you by 1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet.
In this video, we're going to show you how to replace the tailgate handle on this '03 F250, same as any Super Duty truck from this era. A lot of times these handles will break, just because of bad latches or whatever. The only tools you'll need are a T30 Torx driver with a ratchet and you'll also need an 11mm socket with a ratchet, and then some penetrating oil and white grease to lube up the latches and stuff will also help.
Using a T30 Torx bit and a small ratchet, you want to remove eight Torx bolts that hold this panel. I'm going to hit fast forward here as I remove those bolts. Here's the back of your handle. There's two 11 bolts or nuts right here, remove those. You can see that latch mechanism came right up. I'm just pulling down from the bottom and flipping my handle out.
Here's our old handle, and new handle from 1A Auto. You can see it's exactly the same. You will want to transfer your lock over. Take a small screwdriver, work it right in there, and push out on the lock. You'll want to take that wire retainer all the way out and the lock comes out. You can leave the retainer in your new handle, just push the lock right in. You want to clean up this with some penetrating oil and put some white grease on it. Somebody's already done it previously so I'm not going to put a whole bunch more grease.
Now, the new handle goes right up in. Make sure that this part gets up above here and on. Start one of the nuts and the other one and adjust. Tighten them nice and firm. It doesn't have to be too tight. I'm going to fast forward through putting this panel back on. Start the screws individually by hand first, and then use your T30 Torx driver and ratchet. I mentioned it briefly, but while you have that panel off check all your mechanisms, use some penetrating oil or whatever to free them up. Make sure everything's free and use some white grease sprayed on there. Make sure all your latches and everything are nice and free.
We hope this video helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet. Please feel free to call us toll-free, 888-844-3393. We're the company that's here for you on the Internet and in person.
