americanbison

On my 96 Sport, the passenger side door handle button recently quit working. When it was pressed, it would even stick in flush with the handle. The same thing occured on my 94 a few years ago, and I've seen other Cherokees with the same problem, so it seems to be a fairly common failure. I ripped my door panel off, and also the access hole cover on the door. After messing around for a few minutes, I could see that if the pin behind the button would just press the lever a little bit further, the rod could actuate the mechanism properly. The button was sticking because the pin was sliding on the lever, then getting jammed off to the side. I thought about ripping the whole assembly off another Jeep I have sitting around, but decided it would be too time consuming.
Ideally I knew I needed something rubber, so I cut a piece of a rubber floor mat and epoxied it to the lever. Very simple. Now the rod can push the lever far enough to open the door and it gets plenty of grip on the tough piece of rubber. I held the piece in place while the glue set up with one hand up from inside the door, and one finger through the access hole. It works perfectly now.
That gives me more time for more demanding tasks, like replacing a bad freeze plug on my 01. And it just had to be the one on the back of the block! I just got the transmission out and drive plate unbolted before it got dark tonight.

compgeek13

I think that you may have just saved me from buying a(nother) door handle.

cruiser54

I thought there was an adjustment there.......

KHester

Dr. Zee had a fix that was posted earlier with the allen screw picture. I couldn't link it so I copied the whole post.
Hi guys, just want to share my "experience", this may or may not do any good in your situation...
Mine is '96 4 door w/power locks.
So when I've got the jeep both rear doors were dead-locked, can't open neither from inside neither from outside.
Finally one day I've decided to try to deal with this.
In my situation there was also a complication, as both rear doors "child safety" tubs were engaged ("ON" position), so the inside handles were "disabled". If I press the outside handle button, it goes all the way in, but the door would not open.
So I had no choice, but take the doors' panel off, thankfully it was actually possible while the doors were closed, but it's pita
You may not need to do so, if you can open the door from inside.

So, in my case, I took the panel off so I had access to that "hole" behind the locker mechanism. I rolled down the window, so I could reach outside and press the button, while with flashlight illuminating the inside of the hole and watching what the hell is going on there. It's kind of hard to see much, but you should see a "piece" (link) moving down. From there (also after spraying all the pieces inside with WD-40, as they were very rusty), while pushing the button I managed to reach/grab that "moving down link" and helped it out by pulling it down a bit more and got it open.
After I've got the door open, then I could set the child safety to "OFF" (also was rusted and hard to move), and now I could open the door from the inside. However, as I close the door, again, I still could not open the door from the ouside.
So what I've noticed, by "observing the action", that it seems that "Pushing The Button action" works, but does not "go down enough" to unluck the locker. Then I looked at the side of the door and found that little hole with "adjustment screw" inside. I am not sure what the correct name for it, but if I understand correctly, this is adjustment of "door handle button action" (?).
So, I've looked into that little hole (see attached photo 1), I see there a small Hex screw, and it has some adjustment play. I had to WD-40 that screw too first. Then I unscrewed it a bit so it's movable and pushed it up (actually , all the way up to the max) and tightened it. So in my case this was just enought to get that "missing" extra action-motion from the Button to the locker, and now everything works fine.
You can try this, see if this may make a difference. I'd imagine, there could be different reasons there...the whole mechanism is pretty freaky there
see attached photos, I did my best trying to make shots of that screw, it's hard to find the right camera angle so the screw is visable.
Attached Thumbnails
Attached Images

cruiser54

THAT'S what I was talking about.