weak door locks fixed in later 75-76 02s? (pic)

[KFunk]

Sorry if this has been posted before, but I've searched plenty on this topic and went straight here for all my advice:

http://www.zeebuck.com/bimmers/tech/doorlocks/doorlocks.html

I had already done my driver's side after it broke in pieces, and I also did the latch bending process which was a real pain to get everything to work right.

I finally got around to fixing my passenger side, and grabbed another door handle off the same parts car. It was a squaretail, don't know what year. I can try to get a VIN# tomorrow if I'm out to that side of the island.

As I was putting everything back together, I noticed the huge difference in lever sizes. I can't say which came from which car for certain, but I bet the big one came from the parts car, which was probably a 75-76, while my car is a 74.

I don't know why I never noticed this difference the first time, as my driver's side has a door lock from the same exact parts car. Can't remember which lever I used.

But if this can do the preventative fix, it'd be far easier to get one of the levers from a newer car than to go to the trouble of bending the door latch. I couldn't get my door latch out of my pax side because the screws won't let go, and started to round out. I had bent it a little while on the car by pushing on the lever with a long screwdriver, and still everything worked ok. But after that I figured out the deal with the different sized levers.

[DukeRimmer]

This is a screwdriver that twists when hit with hammer. Takes the strain out of over tightened screws and pays for itself the first time it saves you from dealing with stripped screw head.

[johnhup]

I just replaced mine today and they also had the longer lock catch. Hope they last longer!

[alp]

The tool is called an impact driver.